Evolution
by Rater202
Summary: After Ascending out of the Universe following Amon's defeat, newborn Xel'naga Sarah Kerrigan saw something she didn't like many universes away. Now the people of Earth Bet must evolve if they want to survive, starting with Taylor Hebert. Trigger warning: Suicidal thoughts and actions in the prologue. Rated M for language.
1. Prolog: Mutation

**Prolog: Mutation**

I was standing at the edge of the bay, with pockets full of rocks. It-it was for the best. I don't have a life anymore. My name is Taylor Hebert. A while back, my best friend in the world, Emma, turned against me. She and two other girls started a campaign of systematic terror upon me. They stole things from me, they called me names, they used things I'd told Emma against me. They'd try to humiliate me, they'd hurt me, and they'd led others to do the same. Worst of all, the teachers at school would do nothing about it. This I could have dealt with, but not... Recently, they'd backed off. I thought it was over. We went on break from school, and then when I got back my locker is full of the worst rotting filth you can imagine-I backed off, sickened by the stench, only for one them them-Sophia Hess, the most violent of the three girls, to shove me in and slam the door locked, I was trapped. The hallway was full, no one said a word. It felt like days. I struggled, but eventually, I was just so tired that I had to stop. I think I went into shock for a bit, but the next thing I knew was that I could feel my body changing.

I had what's called a trigger event. That's how Capes-Super heroes and villains and the like-get their powers. Enough stress, and poof, you grow a new node in your brain and you've got super strength or laser vision or acid spit... If you're lucky. Some capes are changed by their powers, they turn into monsters, in body or in mind. Guess how I ended up. I freaked, and I struggled against the locker again and put my hand through the locker door and my thrashing tore the door off of its hinges. I was screaming and cursing and freaking out-I ran. I saw Sophia, but I didn't think to do anything-I kind off bowled over her while running. I might have broken a door leaving the school, but I can't remember. I just ran, and ran, and ran until I just couldn't run anymore. I was in an alley. I fell to my knees and I threw up, and that's when I started thinking again. I could still feel my body changing. I looked at my hand, I expected it to be cut but it wasn't. There were scales on it, and my nails were longer, sharper.

I'd always been a bit of a 'Cape Geek', so it was then that I put two and two together that I had triggered. I took a moment to calm down, let my body recover from the run, and started walking around town, trying to figure out where I was. It was a few hours before I had my bearings enough to get home, and it was dark. When I got there, the PRT had officers at the door talking to my dad about something. I panicked and ran, but they must have seen or heard me because after a block or two I was trapped in containment foam. I struggled and then... I think I exploded, and most of the foam was gone. I ran, and I don't think that the PRT guys were expecting what happened because they didn't follow. It's been a few days since then. In those days, I'd been shot in the back by Shadow Stalker, one of the Wards, and the one time I managed to get close to getting into contact with my dad, he was being harassed by PRT Officers at his office. I had to sneak away without getting a chance to talk to him.

Like I'd said, it was for the best if I ended it all. This isn't really living, and once I'm gone, maybe they'll leave dad alone. He'll be upset, but he'll deal. I absentmindedly traced a finger onto the scales on my hands and forearms-I'd tried slitting my wrist, but it didn't work. So about an hour before, I found as many heavy rocks as I could, and loaded them into my pockets.

Did I really want to do this? This is a big step, after all, and… No. Not yet. I still want to live.

And then I got shot in the back. I turned, and there was Shadowstalker again. Here to finish me off, I suppose. She shot me again, this time in the gut then dropped her crossbow and rushed me. She punched me in my jaw, then she kicked me in the gut, pushing me into the bay, and I felt myself sinking in, deeper and deeper. Guess it's out of my hands.

I don't know why I held my breath, I was trying to drown earlier after all, and then I felt myself slipping further down. Did you know that your lungs kind of start to burn when you go too long without breathing? I imagined seeing my mother again-she'd died in a car accident before I'd started high-school. I imagined Emma, back when we were younger, back before she was a bitch. I imagined dad... crying... I felt a twinge of guilt, but no, this was for the best. I couldn't keep my mouth shut anymore, it opened and water from the bay filled my mouth and lungs. Bay water doesn't taste half bad, actually. What funny things you think when you're dying... Damn it all! I'd changed my mind, I want to live! Am I really going to let that bitch finish me off? My vision was going dark, I felt so tired… I guess I don't have much choice here, d-do I? So cold...

...

...

...

...

...

The next thing I knew, I was sitting in a chair in a metal room-something you'd have seen in one of those old sci-fi movies, or maybe a house built by a Tinker. I got up out of my seat and tried to leave the room. I couldn't figure out how to work the sci-fi door. I turned around, and jumped back in shock as I found I was no longer alone-there was a woman in the room with me who I had completely missed. She was a redhead, with a ponytail, and she was wearing that skintight science fiction spacesuit/armor that you see in movies and comics.

"Who are you? Where are we?"

"We have a lot to discuss, Taylor Hebert. It'll take a while to explain where we are, but my name is Sarah Kerrigan"

*Break*

"So, let me get this straight-This is a dream, but you're real?"

"Yes."

"You used to be human, but now you're some kind of alien inter-dimensional space-goddess."

Kerrigan's face remained serious, but her lip twitched a bit when I said that.

"Yes."

"And in the universe, you came from, there were three intergalactic warring races, but they're all kind of sort of friends now but not really because of fighting a common enemy."

"Yes."

"And when you ascended out of the Universe or whatever, you saw... something that reminded you of this common Enemy, and you didn't like it, so you went back into your universe, rallied the troops, and then you all got together to do something about it."

"That's the gist of it, yes."

"So... How?"

"Sit back down, this will take a minute."

So, I sat back down, and this woman, Kerrigan, explained a bit more.

"The three races I mentioned are the Terrans-humans, The Protoss, and the Zerg. Each race has its own strengths and weaknesses-The Terrans, my native race, have a great deal of creativity, determination, and some of them even had psychic powers."

"The Protoss, on the other hand, all have psychic powers. And they're better at it than Terrans are...Well, most Terrans. It's almost like magic really. They also have technology much, much more advanced than the Terrans do, and it works with their psychic powers."

"Finally we have the Zerg. The Zerg are... Well, imagine something that's halfway between an arthropod and a reptile. Now imagine that there are millions of them, and they all have a mental connection, and they can absorb your DNA, turn you into one of them, or both. And they want to do both."

She adjusted herself a bit.

"And that's all you need to know about us right now. You'll learn more later."

"I don't think there's going to be a later. I sort of-"

"You don't have to worry about drowning if that's what you're talking about."

"What, how?"

"I'm connected to you through your powers. At times like this, when I'm focusing on you, I can see your physical state."

"Okay..."

I'm not exactly sure how to feel about that.

"Relax, we've only got so much time until you wake up, and we're not done yet."

"Oh-Okay."

"Now, having seen what was going on here, what we did was we sort of...tampered with the system that gives people in this world powers. So, instead of or in addition to those powers, people are going to start getting powers from us, and that's going to help you all deal with the enemy. You're the first person to get powers from us."

I looked at my hands and traced the scales.

"Why me?"

"We didn't change who would get the power, just the power itself. Besides, I think you're just right for this one."

"But-"

"I know you've suffered since getting your powers. We never intended that. But I look at you, and I see what you really are. You're strong. You'll overcome this and be stronger for it."

"If you say so. So, I can tell my powers didn't come from the Terrans. So, am I Zerg or am I Protoss?"

"Both. And Terran. Took us a good while to get it to work right."

I blinked in shock at that reply.

"Oh... Um, what?"

"You're the vector. Your power is going to infect the powers of other people and change them to fit the paradigm of your own power-you're going to give other people powers like ours, basically. Because you're the vector, you needed to have the traits of all of us. You're also going to grow. It's already started, but eventually, you're going to be the best of all of us-you'll be better than us."

"What does that mean?"

"It means, Taylor, that you're evolving. Growing, changing. Physical powers, psionics, you'll be smarter, faster, stronger, and you'll make the people close to you stronger too. In a few decades, you might even be an 'alien inter-dimensional space-goddess' like me. Until then, though, your body is going to change, based on your desires and circumstances, until you've become a perfect hybrid of the three of us."

She sounded comforting-reassuring. Almost like a mother with absolute faith in her child. I took a deep breath. There was something I needed to ask.

"You said I'm changing. Am-am I going to be a monster?'"

"Maybe a little bit. Not too much, though"

And then suddenly where Kerrigan had been standing was... Her skin was green, her hair... Was, uh, spikes or spines or something, she was covered in a bug-like shell and, and these massive skeletal wings and... Were those high heels? But her face, she still looked comforting. Like she was concerned for me.

"This is about as monstrous as you'll get. You'll most likely to be less so unless you completely stop caring about being human on every level."

I felt a bit relieved. I had more questions.

"Are you sure about this, about me?"

She smirked, just a bit.

"Think of it like this. You wanted to live, just a moment ago. Right?"

"...Yeah."

"And while you have problems, you've got power now. Soon you're going to be strong enough to fix those problems yourself if nobody else helps you."

"Yeah."

"And you've got me, and a few other people, we're going to check in on you and fill you in on the stuff you need to know."

"If you say so."

"And your power means that you will, eventually, have people outside who'll be there to help you."

"Yes"

"So there's nothing stopping you."

"...No, there isn't!"

"So, you're going to wake up and go out there, and you're going to take the time to grow into your powers, and you're going to make things better."

"Yeah! Wait, who's this enemy we've got to deal with?"

"That's a long-term problem. Deal with your own issues first."

"Okay, fine...I'm not going to grow high heels, am I?"

Kerrigan chuckled.

"You probably won't look much like this. And no, I don't know why I have them. Now, I think it's time for you to wake up."

She was right, I could see the sci-fi room fading around me. I turned to say goodbye, but Kerrigan was gone, and then...and then...

...

...

...

...

...

I was back underwater. My lungs didn't burn anymore-I'll take that as a good sign. Once I got my bearings I reached into my pockets and shook the rocks out, before heading straight up and making my way to shore. Kerrigan was right. There's nothing stopping me now. I might not be able to go home, or have a normal life, or even be a hero, but I could still change things-fix things, clean up the city and then just maybe I'll be able to make the PRT stop hunting me and leave Dad alone myself, since I doubt they'll do it on their own.

I'll need to lay low though-I need to grow, to figure out how my powers work, and maybe figure out a Cape name for myself. I set off into the city, looking for a place to get some rest-I was tired, for some reason.


	2. Fortification 101

**Fortification 1.01**

It's been weeks since I'd last seen my daughter. I remember it vividly-some officers from the PRT had come to the house that evening, two at the door, and four by their van. Two of them armed with those foam weapons. They had said that Taylor had a trigger event at school, and had gone on a rampage. I didn't believe a word of it, that's not my Taylor, but the officers insisted and demanded that I tell them where Taylor might be. Before I could answer, Taylor came walking around the corner. She froze when she saw the agents and then they spotted her. They didn't even try to talk with her, they just ran after her and she fled. I felt my blood boil when they doused her in that foam, and then she exploded. A pulse of energy vaporized the foam and knocked back the officers, and Taylor ran. That was the last time I saw her.

At first, I was in shock, but a few days later I went combing through Taylor's room. I searched her closet, under her bed, I ever went through her computer. There had to be something that would prove her innocence. What I found was a laundry list of charges-it seems like the entire school had ganged up on Taylor and the teachers had done nothing about it. And Emma Barnes had been the ring leader. Emma had been Taylor's best friend. Her father, Allan, had been mine, but when I confronted him about this he threatened to destroy me financially if I kept trying to "slander Emma's good name." Some friend he turned out to be.

Driving myself into financial ruin wouldn't help Taylor, so I put that problem on the back burner-meaning I couldn't go after the school either, not yet because that would set off Alan. So I'm going to to the PRT and straighten this whole thing out-I had proof that Taylor was bullied by the whole damn school. Maybe, just maybe, that'll put doubt on whatever witnesses claimed that Taylor attacked other students.

*Break*

Director Piggot was an unhealthy woman. She was somewhat obese and apparently had diabetes or kidney problems-I'd twice managed to schedule a meeting with her, only for her to have to cancel because of dialysis complications. It's been a week since I scheduled the first meeting, and two since I'd started navigating the red tape to get this meeting in the first place. In that time I've been harassed by PRT officers twice, once at my office. They were demanding to know anything and everything I could tell them that might lead to Taylor's capture. But I've got a meeting now. The director seemed exasperated as she flipped through Taylor's journals. She hardly seemed to be paying attention.

"Mr. Hebert, I understand where you're coming from. But what you need to understand is we have credible witnesses to what your daughter did that day. I saw the claw marks on her victim's arm with my own eyes. We have photographs of the injury and of the property damage she inflicted on the school-they match."

She handed the journals back to me, and I was torn between shock and fury as she essentially waved the evidence away as if it was nothing.

"But the journals-"

"Mr. Hebert. We did an investigation into the school. There is no evidence that any of these events took place-no witnesses. From what the staff of Winslow said, your daughter was an isolated loner. The students at Winslow supported the story and mentioned that it had been rumored for a long while that she was mentally unstable. It's entirely possible that she felt persecuted and imagined these scenarios herself."

My blood was boiling again.

"Taylor wasn't-"

"And, Mr. Hebert, even if these events did happen, it doesn't change what she did. The best case scenario for your daughter is that she turns herself in and we'll be more lenient on her. If you have any contact with her, it's important that you tell her to turn herself in."

"...My daughter isn't insane, Director. She wouldn't imagine being bullied, and she sure as hell wouldn't go on a rampage through the school like some animal."

She sighed,

"Mr. Hebert. Let's say you're right. That everything in that journal occurred just as your daughter wrote it, that she was perfectly sane. That doesn't matter. Trigger events change people. A trigger event is quite simply the single worst experience most people will ever have. Parahumans can't help but use their powers-some of them, especially Tinkers, seem almost compelled to use them. Combine a traumatic experience, newfound powers, and a compulsion to use them, and you have a recipe for disaster. She went on a rampage, and needs to be brought in."

"But Director-"

"Mr. Herbert."

She sounded quite annoyed.

"I understand that you've got a desire to protect your child, but it's out of your hands. Please, let us handle this."

And then she called for someone who showed me out. I'm just glad that she didn't try to keep the journals. I don't know who to go to next, but I know that I'll still need the journals when I figure it out, and I doubt making a scene trying to get them back would help my case. I need to get to work, I'll think on this later.

*Break*

I was working on my car. I'd done that a lot since my Annette died. Little things, here and there. Every so often I'd get an idea for how it could be better. Safer, more fuel efficient, how to make it ride easier, that kind of thing. Just something simple here and there. At the time we figured it was just my way of coping with the accident, but over time it just became a habit of mine, something to do when I was stressed. I took a moment to wipe some motor oil off of my hands when I heard a knock at the door. I answered and it was Kurt.

"How are you holding up?"

"As well as you can expect, I guess."

"I didn't get a chance to ask you, how did it go at the PRT."

I sighed.

"It was a complete waste of time. She barely looked at the journals and made some excuses about how parahumans are different from regular people. She even told me to tell Taylor to turn herself in, if I got in contact with her. If I knew where she was, I wouldn't need the PRT in the first place."

"Oh…"

"Yeah."

There was an awkward pause.

"We're all keeping our eyes and ears open for any sign of Taylor."

"I know. Thank you."

"So what are you going to do now?"

"I don't know. Maybe I can try the Mayor's office, but… I need more money. I'm not going to get anywhere without a lawyer. So for now, I'm going back to work. I'm going to do the best job I can, and I'm going to pinch every penny and use every cent to get my daughter back.


	3. Fortification 102

**Fortification 1.02**

I was in a sour mood as I stumbled into work. This morning as I'd looked through the paper, I'd spotted an article about a new cape that the media called "Lilith" who was seen participating in a gang fight. They described this "Lilith" and I immediately recognized her as my Taylor. All morning and the whole trip here I couldn't help but think of how horribly things must be going for her. The best case scenario is she was at the wrong place at the wrong time. The worst… I don't want to think about it. If I did, I'd have a hard time stopping myself from going completely off the rails, and that wouldn't help Taylor.

I didn't see any sign of her on the way to work. I'd just have to try and put her out of my mind until later and try to focus on my work. As I walked in, I noticed some of the boys heading out with some of the new tools. I'd gotten a few ideas for tools that would make dock work easier. Nothing too big, yet, and not many of them, but building these things and really throwing myself into my work was helping me stay grounded in reality. Kurt came in. looking contemplative.

"Can we talk a bit?"

"That depends, about what?"

"About this stuff you've been building."

"Okay."

Kurt took a minute to adjust himself.

"Well, some of the guys and I have been talking, and Lacey and I did some research, and, well, we think you're a cape."

This was the last thing I expected to hear.

"Why do you think that?"

"Well, for one, there's the stuff you made. I'm pretty sure it's Tinker type stuff. I mean fusion welders sound like something a tinker would make, and I've seen that sketches for those robot suits you're thinking about."

I went into my desk drawer and took out the sketch in question. Well, the Specialized Construction Vehicle was a bit advanced. I could see why people would think-My thoughts were cut off when Kurt spoke again.

"And then there's the… Thing. With Taylor."

And that's when it clicked. Director Piggot had said it back in the meeting, Parahumans get their powers after the worst day of their life. With what's been happening with Taylor…

"Okay, I think you're right."

"So, what are you going to do?"

I thought about it for a good bit. I'd been working on these things and throwing myself into work to distract myself from my problems. Maybe they can be the solution to my problems, instead?

"Well, there's an upcoming meeting at the mayor's office for. Maybe, just maybe, dockworkers equipped with Tinker-tech will get more jobs and more funding from the city?

*break*

Mayor Roy Christner was about what you'd expect when you think of a mayor. Late middle age, distinguishable face, male pattern baldness. The only thing off were his big ears. He depicts himself as a family man, and from previous interactions with him, it seemed to be the truth. The negotiation meeting had gone about as well as you'd expect until I mentioned that the Dockworkers would have access to Tinker-tech soon. The meeting devolved into chaos for a bit, then ended abruptly., and I found myself in a private meeting with the mayor soon after. Mayor Christner seemed to be anxious but cautious.

"So, Mr. Hebert, what do you mean when you say that your dockworkers will have 'Tinker-Tech?'"

I pulled out my notebook.

"You've read or heard about this 'Lilith' in the news, right."

"I have."

"Well, Lilith is... She's my daughter. This whole situation with her is the result of one hell of a misunderstanding, one I have evidence of, but nobody in the PRT will even look at it. Afterward, I started getting ideas for new technology. I've already built a few tools for the dockworkers, and productivity is through the roof. I've talked with some people, and we think that this fiasco with my daughter was my trigger event."

"I'm-I'm sorry to hear about this."

Like I said, he's a family man. I slid him the journal, opened to a few designs I'd drawn.

"I appreciate your sympathy, but anything I can do for her will need more money than I have. I don't particularly feel like abandoning the docks, and I've never had much of an interest in crime, so my options are limited to what I can do with my technology."

"And what is that, exactly?"

He sounded more cautious than anxious now.

"Well, I've already made tools for the dockworkers that have improved productivity significantly. Workers with Tinker-tech seem to do more work in less time and do a better job than they would have otherwise. I can't help but wonder how much better they'd be if I had all of them outfitted with the full range of devices I've thought up. The problem, of course, is making my full range would take more resources than we have available to us on the docks. I have a solution for that, though."

"And that solution is?"

"The Boat Graveyard! Think about it, all of those ships are technically abandoned property. So, under the right circumstances, anyone could claim them. Why not the dockworkers? Not only would that provide me with literal tons of raw materials I could recycle into tools and other equipment to maximize productivity for the dockworkers, but it'd also clear away an eyesore in this city and the abandoned ships are a known hiding spot for assorted criminals and drugged out people. Three birds with one stone, and it doesn't cost the city a dime.."

"You do have a point, Mr. Hebert."

"And that's just the start. If the dockworkers and I can do more and better jobs in less time, the the city saves money on jobs sent the way of the Dockworkers Union but still gets the best quality work done."

I could practically see the dollar signs in his eyes.

"And it's not just dock work-my technology is applicable for a variety of fields. Construction, demolition, renovation, obviously, but also security and the automotive industry. I was good with cars before I triggered. I could upgrade, repair, or even replace the city's vehicles-school and city busses, police cars, fire trucks, ambulances. We could also fortify important buildings-the hospital, the police station, City hall and that way if there's a natural disaster or Endbringer attack, there'll be less to rebuild."

And now, for the clincher.

"And of course, I'm more than willing to sell some of my technology to the city. Off the top of my head, there was this outfit I'd thought up to provide protection while my boys were on the job, and I overdid it."

I reached to the journal and turned a few pages to show Mayor Christner the outfit in question.

"Resistant to tears, cuts, and stabs and the padding redirects a bit of force. It won't stop a bullet from hurting, but it'll stop it from going in you. It's tight, so it won't catch on anything, but it's also easy to move in. I could certainly see our boys in blue wearing this under their gear, and with a bit of armor here, here, and a bit here it'd be more than suitable for SWAT teams. Speaking of SWAT teams, I've had some ideas for weapons that they might be able to use, if say, it turns out that a hostage taker is a Parahuman with a Brute rating."

More Page flipping

"And I plan to build some vehicles, I could sell some of those to the city as well."

The Mayor stood up from his desk, looked out the window, and, after a moment, turned back to me.

"Mr. Hebert. You've been at this job for a while now, yes?"

"That's right."

"...From all signs, you're an honest, hardworking man. Do what you want with the ships in the graveyard. I'll send some work your way. If things go the way you think they will, we'll meet again and we'll negotiate a more permanent arrangement."

"Thank you, sir. There is one complication, though. There's a lot of Gang activity down by the docks. If I could take measures to keep the boys safe while they're on the job-"

"Do what you need to do to keep your coworkers and their families safe. Just, try not to hurt anybody more than you'd have to."

"I understand, sir."

After that, there was an exchange of pleasantries and the Mayor wished me well with the Taylor situation. Things were certainly starting to look up now.


	4. Fortification Interlude 1

**Fortification Interlude 1**

Mayor Roy Christner was in his office, having just sent off Mr. Hebert. He felt for the man, he really did, but that wasn't the only reason he'd agreed to accommodate the man. He was a politician. You don't get very far in politics if you can't see the writing on the walls. The world was getting worse all the time. Small countries rising and falling because of super powered warlords, entire cities being wiped off the map because of the Endbringers-if they were lucky, and there always seemed to be more villains than heroes.

Brockton Bay had one of the largest parahumans per capita of any city in the united states, and it was all but controlled by supervillains and gangs. The PRT and Protectorate were no help. Most of them seemed to be more concerned with keeping the status quo than with solving problems. It was almost like a giant, high stakes game of cops and robbers, but that can't be right, can it? It'd be ridiculous. New Wave was a bit better, but they all seemed to see the world in black in white, and well, they were just a few people.

Mr. Hebert wasn't like most parahumans. Mr. Hebert's thoughts when it came to his powers were to try and use them to raise the money he needed to help out his daughter, and he planned on doing that by helping his co-workers and the city. He was also a Tinker. He actually could help the city far better than most could, and consider the situation with his daughter and the PRT, it was unlikely that he'd play to their politics. So in Mr. Hebert, there was a man in the unique position of being willing and able to clean up this city, or at least slow its descent.

But that wasn't the only reason Mayor Christner had for agreeing to help out Mr. Hebert. Mr. Hebert was primarily motivated by his daughter. He believed that his daughter was innocent and that all he needed was enough money to… do something to get her back home safe and sound. Mayor Christner hoped he was right because the alternative was… Danny Hebert was good at what he did, but he was also well known in circles that worked closely with the unions. In particular, it was known that he had a monstrous temper. If his daughter was not innocent, or if she had gone too far to the dark side in her attempts to survive, well, Mayor Christner didn't want to be in an angry Tinker's line of fire. He meant what he said about believing Mr. Hebert to be a good man, but he couldn't help but think of how he'd feel in Mr. Hebert's circumstances, and well, Roy Christner bought his son superpowers to give him an edge at baseball. It's not that hard to guess how he'd have reacted in Mr. Hebert's situation.

The Mayor checked his schedule, then checked that his office door was locked before taking out his cell phone and calling one of the numbers on speed dial.

"Rory. What can you tell me about this "Lillith" girl who's been in the news?"

"...Did you get the call about the Director wanting to schedule a press conference yet?"


	5. Fortification 103

**Fortification 1.03**

I was in for a shock when I turned the television on that day. On every local channel was a Press conference from the PRT, with Director Piggot speaking.

"Several weeks ago, you began seeing reports of a Parahuman that we, the PRT, codenamed "Lilith." Lilith's first action as a Parahuman was to rampage through Winslow high school, inflicting a great deal of property damage and inflicting injuries on one of the students. Later that day, when cornered by agents of the PRT, she escaped by destroying PRT issue containment foam. In the following weeks, as many of you are probably aware, Lilith was spotted fighting members of the Merchants, the Azn Bad Boys, and Empire 88. Some of you might believe that doing battle with members of the gangs that plague this city to be a Heroic act, but believe me, in this case it is not."

"A few days ago, the PRT made a move against a Merchant controlled drug house. However, the operation was compromised by Lilith's presence. When our agents arrived, they found most of the merchants working in the drug house to have already been dispatched, and Lilith in battle with Mush. Our agents report that Mush fled when they arrived, and that Lilith grabbed a case of unknown contents and attempted to flee. When our agents attempted to apprehend her, she commented that they "ruined everything" and severely injured two agents in her escape."

"Lilith is dangerous and we believe her to be unstable. She is a threat to anyone and everyone around her. because of the threat of Lilith, on top of the many criminals already present, we are calling in PRT Agents and Protectorate heroes from other cities. If you see Lilith, flee the scene and report her presence to the PRT immediately."

All throughout the report there'd been pictures of Taylor on the screen-blurry photos taken by bystanders or frames from security cameras. And then there was the police sketch. That damn sketch made my little girl look like some kind of monster. I took a couple of deep breaths. Losing my temper now won't help anyone. I went into work.

*break*

I was going to kill them! I was going to fucking kill every last one of those bastards! How could they say such things about my Taylor? My attempt to finish my experimental Gauss rifle was interrupted by some of the boys barging into my office and wrestling it from my hands. Maybe I shouldn't have mumbled my plans out loud? I wasn't in any condition to talk with the boys after that. We kind of came to blows, and the next thing I knew I was being wrestled to the ground while Kurt was saying something about how I needed to cool off. I think I hit my head or something, because I felt myself losing consciousness…

…

…

…

…

I was sitting at a table in the middle of what looked like a cross between a cantina and the inside of a spaceship from one of those sci-fi movies. Well, there were a few things out of place. I'm pretty sure the holographic stripper in the corner was an elf, and there was a very old looking jukebox playing a cover of "Sweet Home Alabama." I looked around, and there was another man here. He looked almost middle aged, with messy black hair and a short beard to match. I walked over to him.

"Um, hello. Where… Where are we?"

"We're in a mockup of the Cantina aboard my Hyperion."

"Hyperion?"

"My ship. I'm Jim Raynor. Sit down, we've got a lot to talk about and not a lot of time to get through it."

I sat down, and the man handed me a shot of some kind of whiskey. I drank it, and it was decent.

"You said this was a mockup?"

"Yeah. You're dreaming right now, but I'm real. I might not be the next time, but I'm real now."

I was confused.

"What?"

"Let me start from the beginning. I'm not from your earth. I'm not even from your universe. Where I'm from, there were a couple of wars between Terrans-uh, that's what we call humans where I'm from, and a pair of alien races. The last war ended with an alliance against a common enemy, and we're still kind of in an uneasy alliance now. Then my Darlin' found out about something big messing around a couple universes down. We decided to deal with it before it got around to us. You following?"

I was, and nodded yes.

"Okay, so it would've been difficult for us to just go in and kick it's asses, so we did some Recon. Found out about the "Parahumans" here, how they have powers, and where the powers come from-Not telling you yet, you don't need to know. So we messed with what causes the powers, so one of the powers would be full of stuff from us-Including copies of some of us. My Darlin was supposed to be the only real one and broadcast these conversations back to the originals, but well… Sarah's done some things that make it hard for some people to trust her, so she did some stuff and I'm here sometimes… I'm getting off topic."

I nodded.

"So, one of the powers was altered? Are you saying I've got your powers?"

"No. Your power wasn't the one altered."

"Then how-"

"Let me finish."

He took a drink.

"The way your powers work, as far as we can tell, is that they attach to someone, and they wait. When somebody with an attached power experiences some kind of stressful incident, the power activates and manifests in a way that fits the person and the incident. The power we took was one that, supposedly, interacted with other powers in some kind of administrative way."

"A Trump Power?"

"Yeah, I suppose, but that's not important. The point is that we took it, and we tampered with it, and we changed it. It's supposed to do two things-one is to reach out and alter other powers so that they'd have properties from us, so that people here would have a chance to take out the threat I mentioned. You, you're the first person to have your power altered by the "vector power." All the advanced technology of the Terran's is in your hands now."

That was…

"So, are you saying I already had a power?"

"It's possible, or maybe you had one attached to you but it wasn't active. Anyway, the second purpose of the Vector was to alter its host, so they'd be a combination of the Terrans, and the Protoss, and the Zerg. How exactly this worked would be based on how the power activated and who got it."

"So, who has the vector?"

I thought of possible heroes or villains who might have powers that fit what this Jim Raynor said, but none came to mind.

"Your daughter."

And then I punched him. After he got up off the floor and held up his hand, he started talking again.

"I really should have seen that coming. Look, what happened with her, that wasn't part of the plan. My Darlin's been talking to her in her dreams, she's been doing pretty well all things considered. Growing into her powers, so please calm down. We've still got more to talk about."

I took a deep breath, and he kept talking.

"Now, if you really want to help your little girl out? She's getting herself ready to make those PRT folks leave her alone and set up a place where she can be safe. She's also getting ready to take on that threat I mentioned in a few years. She's gonna need help for both of those-so if you want to help her, you can build her an army, or you can build up power. Resources, soldiers, goodwill, and use it to make people listen to you about her. Or both."

I thought about it.

"A hero. I'll become a hero. Independent. I'll clean up the streets, get the people on my side. Between that and my work with the city, and…"

I trailed off.

"Sounds like a plan. You should be able to do it all, too."

"Is there anything else that I need to know?"

"Well, right now, the only thing else you need to know is that you might be psychic."

"That's impossible."

"Not where I'm from, and pretty soon not from where you're from. You should be waking up soon."

He was right, I could feel myself slipping back to consciousness, soon I was alone in the cantina, and soon after the cantina faded away, and..

…

…

…

…

"Danny, you okay?"

That sounded like Kurt. I blinked awake.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"You sure? You've been out for a while."

I felt fine.

"I'm fine, Kurt."

I got up the floor, just in time for my office phone to ring. I answered it.

"Hello? This is him… Yeah, I have it...Yeah... I can be down later tonight."

I turned back to Kurt and answered his unasked question.

"That was the mayor's office. He wants me to bring in my evidence for how Taylor was screwed over. Apparently, The Mayor wants her situation investigated, and he's having his people do it."

Kurt smiled, in a half hearted way.

"That's good, right? If the Mayor's investigating, then the truth will come out and Taylor will be safe at home before you know it."

I wasn't so sure about that.

"Maybe. So, Kurt. How'd you like to be the sidekick of superhero?"


	6. Fortification 104

**Fortification 1.04**

The conversation at the Mayor's office went well. After I handed over copies of my evidence, I...hinted to potential developments I might be pursuing, and he hinted back to me that he'd support me as far as he could. Then he mentioned that it was his understanding that most Tinkers had to have their technology checked out by Dragon, and he offered to contact her on my behalf. I'd accepted the offer, and here I was, a few days later, waiting for her. I'd already sent in my designs. She would contact me through a video-chat program soon, though I'd had to go through the trouble of getting a camera and microphone for my work computer.

I was working on a helmet-officially, it was a to protect the boys while they were on the job. Off the record, this is a custom model for my personal use as a cape. I'd just finished the voice modulator-something to make me sound more "heroic," when I received an audio signal-a little tone to announce that I was getting a video call. I slipped the helmet out of view of the camera and opened the window.

Dragon was an average looking woman, somewhat younger looking than I'd expect. Her face was obscured by a domino mask-to protect her identity I'm sure, and it was hard to place her ethnicity from what of her I could see. She was smiling.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Hebert."

"Good afternoon, Dragon."

"I've looked through some of these designs you've sent in, and I must say they're very impressive."

"Thank you."

Something like that means a lot coming from Dragon

"I do have a couple of questions, however."

"Shoot."

She cleared her throat.

"Well, I don't really see a set theme or specialty."

Now I was confused.

"I'm not sure I follow."

"Well, most Tinkers have a specialty or a theme, usually but not always tied into their methodology. My own specialty, for example, is analysis and mass production. To use a well known villainous tinker as an example, Bonesaw of the Slaughterhouse Nine is believed to specialize in biology, anatomy, and medical procedures. Armsmaster of your local protectorate specializes in utility. Even Tinkers who lack a theme have a limit of some type. I've heard of a villain by the name of Leet in the Brockton Bay area who can, allegedly, build anything but only once."

I could see her adjust herself on her end.

"You, however, don't seem to have a readily apparent theme. You have vehicles, mech suits, buildings, power armor designs, weapons, tools, and garments specialized for security, construction, manual labor, or combat. The only common thread, beyond aesthetics, are that they were clearly designed with non-tinker use in mind."

"Maybe that's my specialty?"

It's not. I've been talking with Raynor in my dreams. Or at least a copy of him. From what we've been able to put together, I actually triggered when my Annette died, but everything I came up with was so low key that no one noticed. If I had to put a label on it, my actual specialty would have to be making machines more efficient-I mean, look at what I've managed to do with my car since then, but almost all of the tech I've created since Taylor… Since what happened has been re-creating or tweaking Terran Technology. Dragon doesn't need to know that, at least not yet.

"That's a possibility that I've not discarded. Now, I'm a bit concerned about the number of weapons you've constructed."

"I can understand that."

"It's my understanding that you intend to remain a civilian The number of weapons you've designed is incongruous with that."

I chuckled a bit.

"I've cut a deal with the Mayor here in the Bay. I'm going to be providing some equipment for the police, especially the SWAT teams. The rest of it is intended for security. My boys here on the docks are going to be working with Tinker-Tech, I don't want any of the local Super Villains hassling them in an attempt to get a hold of their equipment."

"Okay, that's perfectly understandable. I do have one more question."

"What?"

"I understand that there's a situation with your daughter?"

Of course, that had to get brought up. I could feel my blood pressure rising. My anger must have been apparent because Dragon's image on the monitor backed up a bit.

"I'm sorry if I upset you-"

"It's fine."

Deep breath's Danny. Deep breaths.

"Yes, there's a situation. She triggered, and she's on the run. The PRT is treating her like she's a monster, but the official story doesn't add up. I have proof that would mitigate or eliminate her initial crimes, but the PRT is overlooking it. The mayor's office is conducting an investigation, and I know my daughter, she wouldn't do something like this unless she didn't have a choice. That's all there is to say on the subject."

There was an awkward silence.

"Again, I'm sorry."

"It's fine."

"No, it's not… Your local PRT director, Piggot, and the members of your locale Protectorate, they're stubborn, and set in their ways, and sometimes abrasive, but they're also good people deep down and respectful of legitimate authority. Your mayor was quite respectful of you when he contacted me. If he believes you, and he's investigating, then if you're right about your daughter's situation, they will listen to the results of the investigation."

I couldn't help but chuckle.

"I hope you're right."

"I feel for you, Mr. Hebert. I wish there was something I could do for you and your daughter."

She sounded genuinely concerned. I sighed.

"Just by saying that you've already done more than the entire local PRT put together."

"Um, yes. Well, with my questions answered, I'm happy to tell you that the technology you've submitted is cleared. You'll be getting an official statement sometime in the next few days."

"Thank you, Dragon."

"You're very welcome."

The conversation ended after that. Once I thought she'd disconnected, I logged off, turned off and disconnected the mic and camera, and then shutdown the computer. I'd heard rumors about Dragon being able to hack into CCTV cameras and other closed networks. If she can do that she could easily keep watching through my camera even with the video chat closed. While I don't distrust her, I don't want to take any risks just yet. Once that was done, I called Kurt into my office.

"The plan's still on, Kurt."

He nodded to me, then went back to work as if nothing happened.

*Break*

It'd been a few days since the meeting with Dragon. Things had been going so well. We'd made a great deal of progress in dismantling the ship graveyard, and I'd made headway into making proper "Tinker-tech" equipment for the boys to use. Work was coming in again and with it money. Things were looking up for the dockworkers association, and on that day I'd been in a genuinely good mood for the first time since Taylor had run away.

And then the merchants attacked.

From what I'd been able to put together after the fact, that didn't particularly like the idea of people working to improve the city, or maybe they were trying to steal some of my technology. The motives don't matter right now, all that matters is that the attack happened. There was a lot of damage to buildings, including my office, and one of the SCV's was damaged badly, but not beyond repair. Several of my boys were hurt, but thankfully nobody had been killed. I'm reasonably certain that this was a warning attack. No parahumans were present, and some of the crackheads in the attack force turned tail and ran when one of my boys, thinking quickly, hopped in the SCV and charged at them. I myself had turned a gauss rifle onto one of the attackers. I'd missed, but he'd called for a retreat when he saw what it did to the wall next to him.

All and all, I went better than expected. I could easily rebuild if there was enough time between now and the next attack, but unfortunately, the Merchants weren't the only headache I had to deal with today. You see, shortly after the ambulances arrived, the distinctive sound of a speeding Motorcycle was heard coming our way, and we were soon joined by Armsmaster, PRT officers following shortly behind him.

"We've gotten word that the Merchants were spotted here."

Way to go. No "Is everyone alright." Go straight to explaining the obvious.

"Yeah, they were here. We could have used you here ten minutes ago."

"I apologize. We're a bit shorthanded, even with the reinforcements we've called in."

He was trying to guilt me. For whatever reason, the PRT was putting a lot of effort into capturing Taylor, and he was trying to blame me indirectly for it. I don't know how I know, but I can guess.

"Do you have any idea what the were after?"

"They might have just been trying to cause trouble, but it's possible that they were after my Tinker-tech."

That seemed to take him aback.

"You're a Tinker?"

I responded by pointing to the SCV.

"I see. You're aware that Tinkers have to have their-"

"It's already been submitted to and been approved by Dragon."

He stopped for a moment.

"You're telling the truth."

"I am."

That was an odd choice of words, and he didn't ask for proof…Fuck! He has a lie detector on him.

"So, you need our statements?"

"Yes, I will."

I gave my statement, and some of the boys gave theirs. Then Armsmaster came up to me.

"There is one more matter to attend to, Mr. Hebert."

"And that is?"

He was trying to lead me to something, but I wasn't sure what.

"Something better discussed in private."

Yeah, I'm not having any of that.

"Anything you're going to tell me can be said in front of my boys."

"If you insist. You're a Tinker. Solo Tinkers rarely last long."

...Was he seriously going to try and recruit me here and now?

"I think I'll be fine."

"Are you sure? The PRT can protect you and provide you with resources."

"The PRT has also branded my daughter a monster and is hunting her like an animal."

"Well, she is a criminal Mr. Hebert."

And he apparently thought I'd still join him after saying that.

"I'm sorry, but I don't think I'll be signing up with you anytime soon."

"Are you sure? If your daughter were to know that you were working with us, she might turn herself in. Criminals that turn themselves in tend to be given more lenient sentences."

He was trying to bribe me with my daughter's safety. I was starting to see red and was beginning to fear that I was about to do something I'd regret.

"...Get out."

"Mr. Hebert, be-"

"The boss said get out!"

One of the boys said that. Everyone in the yard was looking at us, and all my boys were just as angry at the so called hero as I was. Armsmaster seemed taken aback by this.

"Very well."

And then he left. I began heading back to my office. There was a lot of work to do and we had to rebuild before the Merchants decide to try again.

*break*

It seems that I'd underestimated just how fast a dedicated enough group of workers could rebuild their workplace, especially when armed with Tinker-Tech tools. It'd only taken a few days to replace what we'd lost with better walls and buildings. It was a bit of a surprise when the city gave us the clear to completely renovate the dockyards, but I figured that maybe Mayor Christner was being a bit more supportive that I thought he would be. I found my suspicions growing stronger a few days into the construction-agents from the PRT had come by every so often to harass us. After two days the normal police just coincidentally happened to come by whenever the PRT came by.

The boys had turned inwards under the harassment. Surprisingly, this had the effect of redoubling their work ethic. We'd almost completely finished rebuilding, and now we were in the process of constructing a bunker-both to hide in in the event of an attack, as well as serve as a storage area for the security equipment...among other things.

With reconstruction underway, and with a surprisingly large amount of money left in our budget, I felt like now would be an excellent time to hire some... independent contractors. I'd already discreetly contacted a couple of parahumans who were in our price range and begun negotiations. I was on my way to meet with them now to finalize the deal.

I met them in an out of the way location-some kind of bar or tavern. I spotted them-a tall, sculpted gentleman and his leaner companion, sitting in a back corner and went over to them. It was the taller man who did most of the talking.

"...Well, you're not what we expected."

"And what were you expecting?"

"I don't know, maybe somebody a little less 'kindly father figure' and more 'Mob-kingpin?'"

I chuckled.

"I get that a lot. But well, I'm probably not like most employers you've had."

"How so?"

"Well, for one, I'm not hiring you for a one-time job-I meant it when I said I was looking for independent contractors."

The other gentleman spoke up.

"Wait, you're talking legit work?"

"I am. I figured that the two of you would like having some money coming in that you weren't risking your necks to get."

The two of them looked at each other, nodded, and turned back to me.

"What exactly are you looking for, and why us?"

"For one, the two of you are in my price range. For two, I did my research. You, your skill set makes you invaluable in workforce training."

"Workforce training?"

"Yes, in particular, I have some security officers who need some quick teaching, and it doesn't really stop there. From what I understand about your skill set, you could do just about any job. As for your partner…"

Said partner spoke up again.

"We're a package deal, man."

"Oh yes, I understand that. You're not as immediately useful as your partner, but from what I understand you can do some amazing things when you manage to do well, so I figure having you around would pay off eventually."

The leaner gentleman didn't respond.

"Also, a couple of the boys and I are planning a... side business, that you might be interested in if things take off."

The tall one spoke up.

"So, that figure you sent us-"

"That would be monthly pay for the both of you."

"It's a pretty generous offer for what you're talking about."

"I wouldn't know."

"And how do you feel about… extra-curricular activities?"

I thought about it for a moment.

"If you mean games or sports, well, whatever you do in your free time is your business. If you mean the other thing, well, as long as it's not too heinous and it doesn't get connected back to me…"

I trailed off, rolling my wrist for emphasis.

They looked at each other.

"Could you give us a minute?"

I got up and went over to the restroom. Once I got back, they seemed to be done talking, so I sat back down.

"Give us weekends off, and we have a deal."

"Deal."

We shook on it.

"Uber and Leet at your service, when do we start?"

*break*

I had to thank Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney...I'm pretty sure those weren't their real names. Regardless, once I'd shown Uber how to use my tech, he was able to become an expert at it and teach the boys, making worker productivity skyrocket yet again, not to mention the training he was able to give the new security... Leet, meanwhile, was able to point out a few less than optimal components in some devices-he had said something about having to pick out flaws like that a lot. I didn't question it.

The most important thing to take away from this is that when the Merchants tried again, we were more than ready for them. They were seriously trying-even brought Mush and Squealer with them. The didn't get passed the gate.

Once more, the PRT showed up after the fact to clean up the mess-Armsmaster seemed shocked that my boys had managed to handle it on their own, it was wrapped up by the time I'd gotten down. He had no reason to come in, no reason to harass us. He seemed satisfied taking in Mush and a bunch of gang members, though...I might have made a call to a certain someone to make sure that he didn't take credit for capturing them.

As for Squealer well… Once the coast was clear, I walked into the bunker. In the back Corner, Squealer was tied to a chair, and Mr. "Dabney," or Uber, was interrogating her.

"I'll talk, I'll talk… Just please, I need a fix."

"...okay, fine whatever, but first, we need to know where every merchant handout in the city is."

I'm almost done building my personal equipment. It's almost time for my debut as a Superhero, and I plan to debut in a big way...


	7. Fortification 105

**Fortification 1.05**

I'm not sure if this was a good night or a bad night for a new Hero. We'd already cleared out three Merchants hideouts, but there was no sign of Skidmark or Trainwreck. Let me back up a bit: I'd set out, in my powered armor-my first original creation, something a bit more like what you'd see a Tinker here with, rather than the powered armor you'd see the Terrans using-along with my Lieutenant, Kurt, and a couple of the boys from the Docks… and our Private contractors volunteered once they'd found out what I'd been planning, calling it a "black ops against the competition." Kurt had a custom uniform, but the others were all in outfits based on the Terran Ghosts uniform, reinforced slightly, and modified to conceal their identities. I'd wanted to make marine armor, but I didn't have the time or resources.

We'd mostly been using non-lethal weapons tonight. Don't get me wrong, we'd brought real weapons just in case, but the vast majority of people working for the merchants were people who'd fallen on tough times, some of whom were former members of the Dockworkers association. Most of the occupants of these hideouts fled when we got there, though they didn't seem to be tipping off the other hideouts. Anybody else we'd nonlethally incapacitate, and then tip off the Brockton Bay PD. There were no capes here, so it's not really the PRT's problem. Speaking of tip-offs…

"Lieutenant, give the call."

And with that order, Kurt went off to give yet another "anonymous tip" to Brockton Bay's boys in blue. A moment later, he returned, and we headed out for our fourth stop of the night. Even if we never actually find Skidmark, it'll be a while before the Merchants can recover from this.

*Break*

I'd spoken too soon. The fourth hideout we'd stopped by had apparently been warned we were coming because as soon as I stepped in, five crackheads with rifles started shooting at me. Luckily, my armor was based on technology meant to fight zerg and Protoss. Bullets from normal rifles just bounce clear off. I proceeded to just walk towards them as they were shooting at me, while the others followed behind me. After a moment, some of the crack heads realized that their bullets weren't halting my advance and dropped their guns. The boys and I turned our nonlethal weaponry-a high-tech pistol with specialized munitions designed to take people down without hurting them-onto the Merchants present, dropping them. Before we could move to keep them down, a bunch of fields of some sort manifested and everything and everyone in the room was hurled at the wall. I managed to stand.

"Anyone hurt?"

I was met with a chorus of "nos," but… Kurt had something else to say.

"I think this one is dead."

I turned, and one of the merchants we'd taken out clearly had a broken neck… Oh no. That was James. A Dockworker I had to lay off last year. Damn that Skidmark. Speak of the Devil, the bastard in question was coming into the room with more armed merchants. My rage was getting the best of me-I charged straight through the cluster of junkies straight for the head junkie. This particular group of addicts was more on the game than the first group had been and cleared out of the way. Then I found myself being thrown back by another one of Skidmark's fields, and the villain ran.

"Lieutenant! You and the others handle the grunts, I'll go after Skidmark!"

"Right!"

I charged through the crowd again, and I could already hear some of them being taken down by the boys as I charged into the hall next to this room. This hideout was bigger than the others. I'd spotted Skidmark at the end of the hall, just on the other side of a door, which he'd slammed shut, as I began charging, a field appeared on the door and it was ripped from its hinges and thrown at me, I turned and braced for impact, letting the door break against my armor, before continuing on.

I was in a larger, open room filled with tables and work benches. I could see coolers and chemical equipment-clearly this was where they cooked up their drugs. Before I could look around more, I found myself being pushed into a wall...Note to self, work on spatial awareness. I really should have seen that coming.

I stood to see the criminal I was after standing clear on the other side of the room, though from here I could tell he was pissed.

"You're that Tinker with the dockworkers, ain't you?"

I responded to his query by firing on him, and he threw up a set of his fields to send the round back at me, I side stepped it.

"You should have just sat back and given us what we wanted."

I noted that no one had actually said anything about what they wanted before I holstered my pistol and switched to the gauss rifle it was meant for brutes and armored opponents, but maybe it'll be enough to get through his fields without hurting him too badly. I managed to get the rifle ready just in time to shoot apart a table that the drug lord threw at me.

"You cost me so much. Mush got arrested, I ain't seen Trainwreck in days, and no sign of Squealer since the raid! D'ya kill her? Did you, ya bastard!?"

Squealer was actually safe and sound back at the bunker-during the interrogation, we had managed to convince her to try and get clean. With any luck, she might be able to turn her life around and become a productive member of society. I fired a steel spike aimed at Skidmark's left leg, hoping that with the slow down from his field, it'd just knock him over. Instead, he'd thrown up multiple fields, and like the non-lethal round before it, it was sent back to me and I'd had to duck and roll out of the way.

"Word on the street is you're that Lilith bitch's daddy. The little whore's ripped off a lot from us, lot of cash, lot of drugs…"

Taylor was stealing drugs? Oh god, please don't tell me she's using.

"Maybe I'll have someone hold you down and make you watch while I'm fucking the little slut."

The next few moments are lost to me, though I felt remarkably calm during the blackout period. The next thing I knew was that Skidmark was on the ground, and I was straddling his chest and punching him in the face. The I felt myself being pulled off of him. I struggled, but then I heard a feminine voice.

"Whoa, hero! The villain is defeated."

I allowed myself to be pulled up from Skidmark, and I noticed that there was a metal spike through his pelvis. Then I noticed that the room was a wreck. Finally, I noticed that my boys were in here with me, as were several PRT agents and a cape. The sword, shield, and round-eared helmet told me all I needed to know about her identity. The PRT had called in capes from out of the city to help contain Taylor, and Mouse Protector was one of them.

"You really did a number on the fiend, hero."

"About that-"

She waved her hand.

"Worry not, hero. From your subordinates, we know that you carry nonlethal munitions and from the damage around us, we know that it was a fierce battle. Clearly, you attempted to defeat him without causing too much harm, but were forced to be a bit more forceful."

I nodded, deciding that yes, that's the story I was going to go with.

"And he doesn't seem to be bleeding too badly. An ambulance is on the way, so it is unlikely that he'll perish. However, I doubt he'll feel like much of a man come the light of day."

One of the PRT Agents as checking Skidmark over and providing first aid. Mouse protector walked around, drawing attention to herself so that all of my boys were looking at her.

"However, I still need to know who to credit with Skidmark's capture and the defeat of the Merchants. Who are you, Hero?"

I stood straight. I'll admit that I've practiced my delivery of this line a bit.

"The men behind me, you can call Lieutenant and my Raiders. You can call me Bastion."

*End*

Author's note: I'm aware there's a canon cape called Bastion: It's a mistake I and my betas/cowriters made that we're rolling with.


	8. Fortification Interlude 2

**Fortification Interlude 2**

Director Piggot could feel a headache coming on.

"So, the Tinker we've been monitoring, the one who is the father of the dangerous new parahuman we've been trying and failing to capture for months, has become an active Parahuman himself and formed a gang."

"That's certainly one way of interpreting things, Director."

It was a simple meeting-Her, Armsmaster, Mouse Protector, and Dragon was on speaker phone. Mouse Protector had just given her statement about the encounter.

"However, director, Bastion was wearing a helmet that concealed his face entirely. It's entirely possible that your Dockyard Tinker is merely supplying him."

"That's a distinct possibility, but for now we'll go with the assumption that they are one and the same. Armsmaster, you've been trying to talk with the Mr. Hebert. How has that been going?"

The Director could tell that Armsmaster was less than pleased.

"Unfortunately, my last attempt was met with threats of legal action-the Entire Dockyard is hiding behind a wall of lawyers."

Well, isn't that great?

"And we can't circumvent that because the Mayor's office is supporting Mr. Hebert's efforts."

It was at times like this that Director Piggot wished she could drink. Armsmaster spoke up.

"Why is Mayor Christner supporting him, anyway?"

"I spoke with him. His exact words were 'Danny Hebert is a decent, hardworking man who none the less has a temper to him. He'd tear the city apart if he thought it would help his daughter, and I'd rather be his ally than his enemy.' He also said that Mr. Hebert is an asset to the city. Dragon, you've seen his technology. How would you assign threat ratings?"

There was a pause as Dragon considered.

"Tinker 6, at bare minimum, with provisions for mover, thinker, brute, or blaster ratings to be assigned based on his load-out. However, his probable specialties complicate things."

"How so?"

"Mr. Hebert's technology has a wide range of applications. He's submitted weapons, construction tools, armor both powered and otherwise, and various vehicles for approval. The only common threads seem to be ease of production and the fact that everything seems to have been designed for use by non-tinkers. Take the two together and…"

Armsmaster's visible face paled.

"You don't mean?"

"I do. Having thoroughly examined his designs, I've concluded that a sufficiently skilled or trained non-tinker could replicate his technology. If he can train even one assistant..."

Hell.

"Noted. Any other comments or concerns, Dragon?"

"I've spoken with Mr. Hebert. I think he's a good person who can be reasoned with, if you reason with him the right way."

"Duly noted. Anyone else?"

Mouse Protector spoke up.

"Bastion seemed more than Heroic from what little contact I've had with him."

Piggot sighed.

"Alright. We'll list him as a rogue with heroic leanings, while listing his 'Raiders' as a potential gang and keep our eyes on them. I need to go and brief the Wards now."

She also needed to discuss things with one of her wards. The Mayor was investigating Lilith's rampage through Winslow. As Shadow Stalker was one of the chief witnesses of the rampage, it would be important that she be warned about the heavy scrutiny she was going to face…

*Break*

Kurt was still on an adrenaline high from the Raider's first outing, even though it had been a few days ago. He might not be a Parahuman, but for one night he was a cape. It wasn't all good, however. He'd noticed it, as had the others. The Dockworker's association was being watched. The PRt was monitoring the Dockworkers the same way that they monitored the Asians, the Nazi's, and the crackheads, at least until the Raiders drove the crackheads out.

It bothered him, just a little bit, that the so called heroes were treating his boss, co-workers, and even his wife and himself as criminals when they'd cleaned out some of the scum ruining the city.

Still, he figured it'd pay off in the end, when the streets are clean and Danny's little girl was back with her father. Until then, he went back to work. Danny was planning to discreetly try and snatch up and help rehabilitate some of the junkies left without dealers after the Merchants' fall-Squealer was coming along pretty well, and that's a big project that he'll need help with. Until then, all Bastion needs do is call for his Lieutenant to come to his side.

*Break*

"Uber, come take a look at this."

Uber and Leet were getting used to working with Bastion. The pay was good and they actually got a little respect from their current employer and his other employees. Uber walked over to leet, looking over his partner's shoulder to see a deconstructed gadget of some sort.

"Why'd you take it apart?"

"See this component? It's pretty similar to something I've used before. By all means, this should have blown up on me the first time I used it, but...I've already taken it apart and put it back together twice and it still worked perfectly both times."

This was big news. If Leet had figured out how to overcome his one weakness-Uber's thought was cut off by sounds of a loud roar reverberating throughout the docks

"The fuck was that?"

"The sky-eye!"

The sky-eye was a little something Leet had recently cooked up for the show-a flying spy camera, basically, He'd set up a tablet to pick up on the video feed. Uber retrieved the tablet and activated it, setting the sky-eye to scour the docks. As he looked down at the feminine figure doing battle with the hulking reptilian brute caught in it's vision, he only had one thought.

"The boss needs to see this."


	9. Trial 201

**Trial 2.01**

I pulled the hood of my jacket further over me. I'd needed a hood ever since my hair fell out. I was upset at first, my hair was one of the few things connecting me back to my mother, but I didn't really have much choice but to accept it. A few days later these weird tentacle things started going out of my head. That felt weird, and I wasn't too happy that I'd lost my hair over that. Then they started changing. At first they were a light bluish-purple color, then this thin layer of stuff started growing over them, and before long they were the same shade of black my hair had been. A little while later, I'd noticed black fibers growing in between them, so it was almost like I had my hair back. Compared to that, getting used to the other changes to my body was a cakewalk.

As I checked around the corner, I contemplated what I'd gone through in the last few months. I'd been trapped in foam a couple of time, I'd been stabbed a few times, and been shot once. I've even fought a few capes, mostly minor grunts from the Merchants and Empire when I got caught trying to steal from them. From all of that, I can say with certainty that my body changes faster when I'm healing from something. Between what I've taken in fights and what I've done to myself, well, let's just say that it'll take a lot to hurt me and leave it it that.

The coast was clear, so I went on. I was out and about because I was running low on supplies. Normally I'd have done this a few days ago, but I like to leave money behind when I break into a place to cover the damages and the cost of what I took, but I'm running low on funds. I had been planning to rob a Merchant hideout, but when I got there the place was swarming with cops. I didn't have enough cash on me to cover what I needed, but I was desperate. I was taking the long way, heading through the docks, in case I was being followed.

Only a few minutes into the docks, I noticed a plume of smoke heading up into the sky. My curiosity got the better of me and I went towards it. It turns out that the Azn Bad Boys had decided to burn down a building for some reason. I tried to stay back, but from where I was it looked like quite a crowd of asian gangbangers had gathered here. There was a big guy and… wait, that's Lung. Huge crowd of gangsters and their leader. Either this was a power demonstration or something big was going on. I moved closer, to get a better look. Lung and another fellow, Oni Lee I think, were fighting four people and some dogs. Oh, the Undersiders. They must have done something to piss off Lung. It wasn't really any of my business, so I turned to leave and…

They're not taking this seriously. The grunts were just standing there, and Lung and Lee were just toying with the Undersiders. It was just four kids in a fight that they can't possibly win. The dogs were getting bigger and charging towards the crowd… and the thugs shot one of them. One of the kids, a girl in a dog mask screamed and then Lee appeared behind her and knocked her to the ground. He wasn't able to do anything else because he tripped, and then Lung blasted fire at the rest of the Undersiders and they scattered. This wasn't right. They didn't have a chance here and...Fuck!

I charged through the crowd, knocking down gangbagers as I went; some of them at the ends shot me, but I paid it no mind as the bullets bounced off my scales. I got to the other end of the crowd, and then I jumped up and came down on Lung's back. I wasn't expecting to knock him to the ground. Either I'm stronger than I thought, or I weigh more than I thought. I'm going with option A.

Lung stood up and threw me from his back. I sat and rolled up just in time to avoid Oni Lee teleporting right on top of me. I turned and slashed at him with my claws, but he faded away before I could make contact. I got this feeling at the back of my head, and turned just in time to bury my claws in his gut. He fell off of my claws with a sickening squelch, landed with a thunk, and disappeared. There's that feeling again; I turned just in time to kick him back. He disappeared again, and I twisted around and slashed-I connected right across the neck and took his head off. Then he faded, just another copy. I'll admit I was a bit relieved at that. He teleported behind me again, and I just turned and kicked him; he flew at the crowd of asian gangsters watching the fight, who scattered, and then vanished after hitting the ground.

Lee appeared behind me again, but when he did he dropped something. I turned just in time to see some sort of device explode. Everything went white, and then my whole world was pain. My next conscious thoughts were that everything hurt, that I was considerably warmer than I was before the flash, that I was flat on my stomach with someone standing on me, and that I had the barrel of a gun at the base of my skull.

As soon as I could think straight again, I opened my eyes. I couldn't have been out long, because we were still in the same part of the docks, in front of the same burning building. I noticed that my arm was burnt black, with flakes of burnt skin already peeling off and being replaced with new scales below-that was going to itch as soon as I could feel something other than pain. I shifted my head, just a bit. Lung was still there, and Lee. The Undersiders had apparently tried to fight back, because Lung was bigger and scalier than he was when I blacked out. He was holding one of them, a blonde girl dressed in purple, while Lee had another, the girl who'd screamed when the dog was shot, in a choke hold. The two guys were down on the ground.

I couldn't let this happen. I reached down, deep into the well of power inside me and I pushed, and a pulse of force erupted from my body. Whoever it was that was standing on me was knocked back, as were a couple of thugs I hadn't seen behind me, and I scrambled towards Lung. I was in too much pain to stand up straight, so I just skittered four legged towards him and, when I was in range I attacked. I don't know what possessed me to bite him, or what possessed me to swallow the chunk of his calf I bit out, but he dropped the girl in purple and screamed, the primal cry of a predator in pain.

Lee teleported to the left and kicked me in the head. It didn't do anything to me, but he didn't get to try again, because Lung spoke up.

"Lee, take the others. The authorities will know we're here by now. Distract them."

Lee Teleported away, and I heard the sound of scampering feet. The pain from earlier was starting to fade, so I stood. Bits of burnt flesh fell from me and the burnt tatters of my jacket fell apart, but as the man turned dragon continued to grow larger, I met his eyes and bared my fangs-still wet with his blood-and grinned. As the pain was fading, I could feel the adrenaline beginning to flow into my veins.

*Break-Danny*

My little girl was fighting Lung. I mean, Taylor had clearly changed, but I could see her hair. It had to be her. I just stared at her, fighting for her life against that monster and, and… No. I could deal with those feelings later. For now, I had to get ready. I handed the tablet back to Uber, who had rushed over, and set out. First I called Kurt.

"Boss, what-"

"I know where Taylor is!"

"That's great!"

"No it's not, she's in a cape fight as we speak."

"Against who?"

"Lung."

"Oh… Shit."

"I know. I know it's late, but if you could do me a favor: Call anyone who might be up and willing risk a fight with one of the most dangerous capes in the city to help me try and get my little girl back tonight. If any are, tell them to try and head to the docks to suit up."

"Will do. And… You said she's fighting Lung. Do you know how she's doing.?"

I looked back to Uber and motioned. He checked the tablet.

"Okay, the good news is she seems to be holding her own. The bad news is she's been burned a couple of times and well, you might want to pack a change of cloths for her… She's blue now, by the way and… she just got punted through a wall."

Shit!

"Kurt, it's not going well. Make the calls, I'm heading out."

"On it."

I hung up and set out. I needed to be Bastion if I was going to risk fighting Lung. As I contemplated just forgetting the nonlethal gear for this, I spared a thought for how scared Taylor must be right now.

*Break-Taylor*

This was so much fucking fun!

I climbed from the rubble and jumped forward, landing on all fours, then hopped to the side to avoid a blast of fire. The last of my chard clothes crumbled away from the movement, but I don't have time to worry about that. I landed again, and then pounced towards Lung.

Lung had gotten bigger-much bigger, and his entire body was covered in thick scales, but my claws still sunk deep into his flesh. I tore out a few chunks of Lung-flesh but I couldn't jump off of him fast enough to avoid getting burned. Being burned didn't hurt anywhere near as bad as the bomb, and I'd noticed that over time it had hurt less in general, but it still kind of sucked.

Once I'd started to cool off a bit, I lunged for Lung's legs again but the sudden blast of fire prevented me from making contact. Then he was on top of me, clawing down at my back and I could feel him tearing clean through my scales and shredding the flesh below… Which was nowhere near as painful as I'd expected it to be. I managed to claw at his legs again and ripped off another chunk of flesh, but that only gave me a few seconds to crawl out from under him. I stood up straight, and turned just in time to scratch him across the chest.

His mask was gone by now and his face began to resemble a dragon. He seemed to ignore the slash and slammed me down. There was fire everywhere by now, some from his power and some from the debris of the building burning behind us. Lung was over me again, but between my back and being forced to the ground I couldn't move. Instead, I sent out another pulse of energy, stronger than the one I'd used before, and Lung flew off of me, giving me time to get back to my feet.

I could feel the slashes across my back healing, and while I'd destroyed some of his flesh and scales I could see Lung regenerating too. I to a moment to note the differences. He was just replacing flesh. Me, I fix as much of the damage as possible before replacing what's gone. He get's bigger and stronger, I get harder to hurt. Lung spoke up, in a distorted and monstrous voice.

"Oooh stron, earl… Ood figh... Shame too kill ooh."

I chuckled, then bore my fangs for him to see.

"Yeah. I've got to admit, this… fighting you? It was more fun than I thought it would be, but I've got no plans of dying here."

I was breathing heavily, and he was still getting bigger and bigger… My last slash didn't hit as deep as the others had. I wasn't sure if I could win if this kept going on but-I heard it. Sirens and moving vehicles. People were on the way here. Lung had clearly heard it too, with the look on his distorted dragon's face.

"Dwahw!"

And then he turned and fled… I fought Lung, and he ran way. I mean, yeah, it's the people coming that drove him off, but still. Fighting him was fun. Was that the adrenaline talking, or was I going insane? I felt someone tap me on the shoulder, bringing me out of my brief moment of euphoria, and I turned to see a blonde girl in a purple outfit and a domino mask. Who was this? Oh, shit, the Undersiders… I'd forgotten about them in the heat of the moment. The blonde was saying something.

"Um, I'm sorry, what was that?"

"I said, would you like a job?"

Something about her was off, it felt like she was afraid of me but at the same time desperately wanted me to take up the offer.

I looked to the other members of her group. One of the guys, a muscular young man in biker lethals, was helping up the boy in tights, while the last girl was checking on her dogs. Did I really want to take the plunge and join a group of Supervillains? Hmm ...

The sirens were getting louder.

"We need to get out of here first. Someone's coming and they'll be here in a few minutes."

"What?" She seemed a bit shocked.

"...You can't hear the sirens?"

The girl shook her head and rushed over to her teammates, and began frantically talking with them.

Come on, what's there to discuss?

"Where is your lair? Is it far away?" I asked as I approached them.

The blonde pointed to the burning building.

Oh.

...

Ah fuck it.

Within a moment they were all following me as I hastily led them down an ally, away from their old lair to mine.


	10. Trial 202

**Trial 2.02**

We were heading through the city, again going the long way to try to avoid being noticed. It was weird; I'd spent months making sure that nobody knew where I'd been hiding out, but now I was leading four people and three dogs that I'd just met right too it. They didn't seem like they'd betray me, but those dogs probably have my scent by now I suppose I could kill them if things go bad, but-No! That's not a line I'm willing to cross. Besides, it didn't feel like they were planning anything. They were all concerned about something or fearful of something, or at least that's what it feels like.

"So, You're the Undersiders."

One of the boys, the young man in the bike leathers judging from tone, spoke up. "Yeah, that's us. And I guess that makes you Lilith?"

"Don't call me that!"

I hated that name. The name the PRT gave me… and really, I'd looked it up. The first wife of Adam, who left him after an argument over who would be on top during sex, and who fucked a bunch of demons and gave birth to more demons… That wasn't me. Well, maybe in a mother of monsters sense if some of my projects took off, but it still didn't feel right.

The young man didn't respond, but the girl with the Dogs did. "Hate the name they gave me, too."

"Yeah," I said, "speaking of names, who are all of you?"

"Bitch," said the dog girl.

"Regent." Said the boy.

"I'm, Grue," said the young man, leaving...

"And I'm Tattletale." ...just the blonde. "So, what do we call you?"

I wasn't really sure about that. I'd thought about it a little, but... "No clue. Look, there's no point in me having a secret identity with my face in the news, so just call me Taylor for now." The blonde, Tattletale, it felt like her feelings changed. I'll try to figure that out later.

"So, why did you save us?" Tattletale asked. I sort of got the feeling that she already knew.

"A couple of reasons," I answered. "I was curious about what was going on to get some many ABB Grunts in one place, and then I saw Lung and the way he was going about things pissed me off-" okay, it was a bit flattering at first, but I couldn't ignore it any longer. "-and Regent stop staring at my ass or so help me!"

I heard someone stumble and felt a bit of surprise.

"Well, it's kind of just there and-"

"No excuses."

I turned back to face him and focused on him and… Okay, there's something wrong with him. His emotions were all...off. He had been thrown off-guard when I caught him, but he didn't actually seem embarrassed, and… No, nope! Not dealing with that.

"Just, just don't do it again," I settled on.

"Alright, fine." He gave a one-shoulder shrug. "How'd you know?"

"I'm psychic," I grinned. Though of all the reactions I expected, I didn't expect Tattletale and Regent to start laughing. Even Grue didn't suppress a snort of amusement.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"Claiming that you're psychic to cover up your thinker power?" Tattletale grinned. "That's kind of my thing. If I had to guess, you've got some kind of danger sense combined with enhanced empathy and..." Her grin faltered, and her eyes widened behind her mask. "Holy shit. You're serious."

I turned to face her and gave a ridiculously wide grin. "Yep. I'm also telekinetic."

I could feel the shock radiating from her, followed by fear, excitement, and determination. "...So, have you considered our offer?"

"Still thinking it over. Besides, I'll need to hear details first."

I heard the sound of palm slapping face as I turned back around. We were near an open street, so I had to double check and look around to make sure the coast was clear. When I saw that there were no cars coming and no eyes on the street, I walked out to the middle of the road, stopped at a manhole, and motioned for them to follow me. Once they were with me, I reached down to lift the cover from the hole. Regent apparently didn't like this.

"A sewer? Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously."

"I'm not walking through shit to-"

"Relax. It's a storm sewer. Now, it's faster and safer to go the rest of the way through here than it is to go around the long way. Bitch, you think you're dogs can get down there?"

The girl in the dog mask looked down the hole, then whistled and made a gesture and her dogs all climbed down, making splashes at the bottom. Without a word, Bitch climbed down after them. I looked at the others and made an 'after you' gesture, and they climbed down. I went last, closing the cover behind me.

"So," I said, "if you'll just follow me it's not too far from here."

We walked in silence for a bit, before Regent spoke again. "So, I've been wondering for a while. Does human flesh really taste like pork?"

I thought about for a moment. "Hmm, no not really. Have you ever had veal? It kinda tastes like veal, though the flavor's a bit off. That might be because I ate it raw though. Human blood is a bit sweet once you get over the taste of metal, and it was a bit rough going down… Though that might have been because of Lung's scales."

"Cool."

He didn't react much, good or bad, to having his curiosity sated. His emotions still felt weird and-wait. Was it weird that I didn't care that I'd eaten part of a human being? I mean, it's not like I was planning to go out and kill people for their meat, but… Ah, I'll think about this later. We kept going for a bit, before turning into an older part of the storm sewers.

"This section doesn't get as much maintenance as the rest of the system. In a bit we're going to come to a disused maintenance tunnel that gets cut off, like they redid the system and ran another tunnel right through this one."

As we came across the across the door to the tunnel, Grue touched something on the side of the tunnel and seemed to be startled. "Taylor. Do you know what this weird, purple goo is?"

"Oh! That's just something I cooked up. It's called creep."

Kerrigan had told me about the Creep in a dream the night after I first made some. It's apparently something the Zerg cooked up. A sheet of expanding greyish purple slime that transferred nutrients and resources between various zerg buildings and organisms, helped some zerg move, and that certain powerful zerg organisms could extend their senses through.

Tattletale spoke up: "Is this a power of yours, or… Tinker?"

Was I? I mean,I got ideas for creatures I could create all the time, but I always thought of Tinkers as being a bit obsessed with creating stuff and I wasn't that obsessed."I guess you could say I'm a tinker."

"Specialty in chemical-No. Micro-organism colony of some kind. You're a Brute, with honest to god psychic powers, and you're a Bio-Tinker."

"Sounds about right."

"...So, our boss offers us about $2000 a month and a cut of every job. Just, just so you know."

"Duly noted."

I got the feeling that she really wanted me to join the team. The others were kind of staring at me as I opened the door into to the abandoned tunnel.

"Down here is a hole in the wall into an adjacent sub-basement, and that's where I'm set up."

I started to lead the Undersiders into the tunnel to the hole in the wall leading to my lair, but they weren't following. I turned back to them.

"You coming or not?"

They were all looking at the floor, which was covered in creep.

Lisa asked "Is it safe?"

"Of course it's safe! Come on, it's not going to eat you… actually it feels pretty good on bare feet. I think I'll be going shoeless more often." On a whim, I looked down at my feet, where I could see claws beginning to grow from where my toenails had been this morning. Looks like 'll be going barefoot for a while regardless.

Regent spoke this time. "What does this stuff even do, anyway?"

"Well, it's good for all kinds of things. It's more of a foundation for future projects than a project in and of itself. Now come on."

The bunch of them reluctantly walked over the creep, though I noted that Bitch had to command her dogs a few times before they finally moved, into the tunnel and through the tunnel to the whole in the wall and into my lair. I closed the access door and followed them in.

My lair was a pretty sizable sub-basement, half of which had walls and floors covered in yet more creep. I could see the Undersiders gravitating away from it, towards the more normal half of the subbasement. The building above it has been abandoned for longer than I've been here. I didn't go up to it or the proper basement in between it and my lair, but there was a staircase heading up. Over the last few months I've managed to get a bed, a few chairs, a table, a few coolers, some chemistry equipment, a mirror, and a mini fridge down here. The best part is that it still had power, for whatever reason. I flipped a switch and the chamber was lit up. I walked to the mirror on the wall to inspect the "damage" from earlier.

I'd been covered in scales from the neck down for a while now, but now the scales were thicker, more plentiful, and packed more densely. If I didn't know better, I'd think I was wearing some type of skin tight body suit. I was an inch or two taller, I think, and… I wasn't rail thin anymore. I don't know how, but I had a lot more muscle mass now that I did this morning. I'm not ripped, like a bodybuilder, but I had a much more toned and… Let's say defined figure. I noticed that something was growing over the scales on my forearms. It was a paler color than my scales, more of a silvery blue than the light blue, though I could see the scales underneath. Kerrigan had had carapace in the form she'd shown me, I guess I was growing some of my own. Looking down I could see some growing over my legs, from ankle to knee, and some forming at my collar and over my lower ribs.

Turning around and looking over my shoulder, I noticed more carapace forming all down my spine and from my shoulders down to the bottom of my back ribs. There were these two little spikes coming out from just below my shoulder blades and halfway between them and my spine. Turning back around again, I started doing some simple stretches, and it felt like I was moving easier. I think I was starting to like this body. And then I realized that the Undersiders were staring at me, and I felt heat and blood rush to my face.

"Hey, Taylor" said Lisa, "you didn't forget we were here, did you?"

I turned back to the Undersiders, and I laughed sheepishly, hoping all the while that they couldn't see me blush. "So, um, this is my lair."

Tattletale and Grue had taken my chairs and Regent was sitting on my bed. Bitch was on a bare spot of the floor with her dogs.

"So, let's talk about that job offer. First thing's first: Unmask."

They all looked at each other, and then didn't do it.

"You do know that what you're asking is kind of a big deal." That was Grue. "We all wear masks for a reason."

"I'm serious. You've all seen my real face, know my real name, and have been to my hideout. I don't know if I can trust you or not yet, and if you want me on your team, I need to be able to trust you. Think of it as insurance until I get to know you better. Besides. If we're going to be teammates, I'll find out who you all are then, anyway."

They all hesitated a bit, but they unmasked. Grue was a handsome young black man, Regent was a pretty boy with dark curly Hair, bitch a redhead with gruff expression, and well, Tattletale had only been wearing a domino mask, so… yeah, blonde.

"Names?"

"I'm Brian." Grue.

"I'm Lisa." Tattletale

"Alec." Regent.

"Rachel." Bitch.

"Okay, now that that's through, why do you want me to join?"

"Well," said Brian, "It's really more that Lisa wants you to join. Normally we'd have discussed it as a group before offering the invitation, but..."

"But considering the circumstances, there's not exactly time for that?"

He didn't feel like he agreed with my assessment. That was interesting.

"Well, there's time to talk now. What do you think about me joining"

"I'm not against it."

"Kay, Alec?"

"Eh. Could be cool."

I honestly can't tell if he cared one way or the other, and I didn't want to try to. There's something wrong with him, but that's a question for another time.

"Okay. Rachel?"

"You're strong."

...I'm not sure what she meant by that. Her emotions were confusing."

"And that leaves Lisa. You want me to join you guys and you want it bad. Why?"

Lisa stood up and took a moment. I think she was trying to compose herself.

"There are… A few reasons. You're not a bad person."

That's the last thing I expected.

"So, you want a not bad person to join a group of Supervillains."

"Look, it might not make sense, but we're not bad people. None of us are villains because we want to be. We're villains because the system failed us, or because it's the only way to escape a bad situation, or because we don't have a choice. There are so many inconsistencies in the story the PRT has been spinning about you. Some that I don't think even they themselves have realized. Now, having met you, I can tell that they're completely wrong about you. You've been screwed by the system. You're like us. I'd rather be your friend than your enemy. Besides, compared to some of the other groups in the city, we're practically saints."

I could tell that she meant that, but…

"And?"

"...And you're very powerful, and a lot of groups might try to recruit you if and when they found out how strong you are. Some of them might be more forceful or less concerned with your well being than we are."

"And?"

"...And you're one of the strongest capes in the city and I'd like you on our team for that reason, but that… that doesn't mean the other reasons aren't true."

She seemed sincere about all of that, and she was honest… eventually. You know, someone to watch my back would be nice, but…

"What kind of jobs do you even do?"

"Well, our boss mostly uses us for jobs against other villains-Lung attacked us because we robbed his casino- and sometimes small crimes. We're not a gang. We don't run or sell drugs, we don't murder people, we don't force people into prostitution. Just theft."

I thought on it some more. They weren't the worst option if I wanted a support group, and they didn't seem to be doing anything much worse than what I was doing already…

"Nobody get's hurt?"

"We try, but sometimes heroes show up or other villains catch us…"

"Hmm… Any job that goes against my morals, I can sit out of."

I wasn't asking. Lisa looked to Brian, then to Rachel and Alec. I can't tell what she saw or they did, but she turned back to me.

"You don't get a cut of anything from jobs you sit out on."

"Deal."

I extended a hand to shake, and she came over to return the gesture. I made a note to ask about their boss later.

Brian spoke up. "We'll have to find a new lair before we do any jobs."

I pointed to the staircase leading up.

"There's an old abandoned apartment building above us. I don't go up there much, but it seems like it's in good condition, the power's still on for some reason, and nobody's using it."

Alec chimed in with a declaration: "That's convenient."

"Yeah," said Lisa. "I can call the boss and see about buying the building in the morning and-Taylor, what's that?"

I looked where she was pointing, to a structure in a corner of the creep covered half of the room and the table full of chemistry equipment next to it.

"Oh, well, the thing in the corner creep tumor. It's not full sized but it's big enough to generate what I need. Next to it is where I've been working on a few things and-Actually, that reminds me."

I walked to it, over the creep covered floor, and checked on a beaker. I'd found some maggots, and I've been feeding them on a mixture of creep, a few drops of my own blood, and some spiders, wasps, and a roach I'd crushed up. If I was right, once the maggots metamorphosed and-speak of the devils, it looked like they were going to finish up at any moment.

The creatures coming out of the beakers were small, like flies, but that's where the resemblance ended. Each of them had an extra set of legs, a stinger and a body plan like a wasp's in a nice purple shade. As they began flying from the beaker of creep, I placed one hand to my temple and the other pointed gently at them. Kerrigan had explained how this worked, and if I was right they should be sensitive enough for me to do this. I focused and tried to feel out towards the mutant flies and, yes! I had them, now just a little expression of will and-Each of the flies briefly flashed a blue color, and I could feel their presence in the back of my mind. It'd take some getting used to, but the experiment had been a success and now I had a way to keep an eye on my lair when I was out.

I turned back to the Undersiders, my new teammates, and Lisa and Brian were shocked and just a bit fearful. Rachel and Alec didn't react as much and their emotions were hard to read, but they seemed a little off put.

"What?"

"Oh," said Lisa, radiating a tiny bit of fear. "You're that kind of Bio-Tinker."


	11. Trial Interlude 1

**Trial Interlude 1**

Lung, having long since scaled down, was in a contemplative mood as he awaited the return of Lee and the others. He had already contacted Bakuda. He had much to discuss with his subordinates tonight.

It'd been long since someone willingly jumped into a fight with him, and the new girl, Lilith, had done it twice. The Protectorate pursues her relentlessly. Lung himself had been similarly pursued in his younger years, with constant offers to join the protectorate and later his imprisonment and subjugation by the Yangban. Lung was shaken from his memories by a few arrivals: Lee and his group returned at the same time that Bakuda arrived. He dismissed the non-powered members of his gang with a gesture. When they were alone, he addressed Lee and Bakuda.

"There has been a change in plans. For now, the Undersiders live."

Bakuda spoke: "What changed?"

"The story is long. It begins with Lee and myself defeating the Undersiders and tracking them to their lair to deal the killing blow. As I burned their home, the new cape in town, the one called Lilith, rushed through the crowd and attacked me. Lee did battle with her, but she proved beyond his abilities and he had to use one of your grenades on her."

Bakuda raised a hand, like a student in a classroom. "Which one?"

Lee spoke up: "Agony"

Lung was in an uncharacteristically good mood, so he let the interruption pass… this once."Once Lilith was down, I attacked her with my fire, but she had somehow survived. She was unconscious, however, so I left some men to guard her while I turned back to finish the Undersiders. Within mere moments Lilith was on her feet attacking me once more, even having the audacity to devour my flesh raw. I sent Lee and the other men to create a distraction, and I faced her, thinking her a cockroach that required my personal attention to stamp out. Tell me, Bakuda. What do you think happened next?"

"The Undersiders ran away while you killed Lilith."

Lung laughed.

"No. My assumption was wrong. She was no roach, but a tiger or perhaps even a dragon. She is young and inexperienced, but she is strong, very strong. She was growing stronger, slowly, all through our battle. Had we more time, I have no doubt that I would have slain her, but to kill her before she reaches her potential… It would be wasteful. I want to see her grow into her power, I want to see what she does with it, and I want to fight her when she reaches her peak!

Bakuda stepped back a small amount, shocked. She knew that Lung was violent, that he enjoyed a good fight, but...

Bakuda didn't know the whole story, 'd been awhile since Lung had encountered someone he could consider strong in the way he considered himself strong, and the number of parahumans that he could name as such could be counted on one hand. Even though the battle at Kyushu was not quite as others believed it, fighting an Endbringer on even footing tends to skew one's scale of strength, at least when it comes to physical prowess or parahuman ability.. The girl, this Lilith, she wasn't quite on his level yet, but the possibility of her becoming his equal, his worthy rival, it appealed strongly to the dragon within him, the part that craved a good fight.

"And this is why the Undersiders still live. She intervened to save them. Was this a chance occurrence, or is she an associate of theirs? We'll see in the days and weeks to come. Besides, the Undersiders are without a lair. They'll think twice before crossing us again. That's enough... for now."

Lung dismissed Bakuda and Oni Lee, and made to return to his own home. He wondered, idly, if Lilith had Asian blood in her veins.

*Break-Uber*

"Boss, Leet and I have got something to talk to you about."

The boss had been in a bit of a funk since last night. Almost getting to bring his little girl, Taylor, home and just barely missing her hit him hard. The PRT managing to get there first, so he couldn't even track her. They'd already gone through the footage. They'd managed to keep the Sky-Eye on her for a bit, but had lost her when she went into the sewers At least they had a lead on her know. The boss was currently Tinkering on something, some kind of com system… Or at least that's he was trying to do.

He kept stopping and going over the footage again, mumbling to himself. "So close… She's grounded when she gets home... giving me grey hairs. Oh, um Uber. What is it? And where's Leet?"

Uber cleared his throat. "Leet's figured out how to make two similar gadgets, he's trying to make a second sky-eye. Anyway, we want to edit the footage from last night and release it online."

There was a moment of awkward silence.

"Why?"

"Your daughter fought Lung. Do you have any idea how big that is?"

"Well, I know he's dangerous, but-"

"That's the understatement of the century. This is the Dragon of Kyushu we're talking about, the guy who fought evenly with Leviathan. The guy who came to the Bay and forced all the different asian gangs, who hated each other, to shut up and work together because he said so. He's not just dangerous, he's probably one of the most dangerous capes in the continent, and that's counting the villains in the Birdcage. Surviving a fight with him is a big deal, but she didn't just survive, she kept up with him. she ripped off strips of his flesh, shrugged off most of what he did to her, and he ran away. She's already got a pretty decent reputation in um, our circles-."

The boss interrupted Uber, confused: "She does?"

"Yeah, she does. Think about it. She's been on her own, on the streets, for what? Four months? The PRT has her listed as a serious threat. She's not quite a priority target, but that she's evaded capture for this long on her own? That's big. She also got away with stealing money and drugs from the Merchants. They had a reputation as washouts, but they took their drugs seriously and they've killed people for trying to do what she's done at least four times that we know about. The two together gave her a mid-tier rep."

"You mean a reputation?"

"Yeah. The thing about the Cape scene is that, hero or villain, it's basically a game. Big enough rep, small time villains don't bug you, and small time heroes won't be sent after you if you go villain."

"So, what you're saying is," the boss said with a tone of curiosity, "if it gets out that she did this well against Lung…"

"She'll be a whole lot safer." Uber finished. "Most of the villains in this town know not to mess with Lung, except sometimes Kaiser. If your girl has the reputation of "Girl who kicked Lung's ass," then chances are most of the villains are gonna leave her alone, and she can probably take whichever villains won't. Meanwhile the PRT won't be sending Wards or PRT agents after her. They'll call in the Protectorate, and She can probably take most of them too, if she doesn't manage to get away before they show up."

The boss smiled. "So she'll be safer."

"Exactly."

The boss went back to watching the footage. "What can you tell me about these people she left with?"

"Those are the Undersiders." Uber replied. "They're small time villains, but they've got a reputation for getting out of scrapes and escaping situations that you'd expect would get them killed or arrested."

"So, she's working with villains now?"

"It's possible, We didn't see the beginning of the fight, she might have just stumbled across them, but if she's leaving with them…"

The boss sighed.

"I had hoped something like this wouldn't happen."

"Well, look on the bright side: The Undersiders mostly go after other Villains. Short of convincing New Wave that she wasn't a criminal and having them pick her up, they're probably the best team she could join and have a chance of not being a criminal once this mess gets cleared up. Hell, Leet and I robbed a mint once and you hired us, so..."

The boss seemed to ignore the last statement Uber made. "I'll take your word on that, the kind of people these Undersiders are. Go ahead and release the video."

"We'll get on it. Now remember, your flesh and blood fought the strongest villain in the city and kicked his ass hard enough that he ran away. That's something to be proud of."

The boss was smiling as Uber left him.

*Break-Piggot*

Director Piggot was working on some files heard a knock at her office door. "Come in."

A somewhat haggard agent came into the office. And reported "Director, something's come up in the investigation about the Incident between Lung and the Undersiders the other night."

"Yes?"

"We have proof that Lilith was involved."

This raised the Director's curiosity. "What proof?"

The agent handed the director a slip of paper with a web address written on it. "I have a URL here. It'll take you to a video on Leet and Uber's website."

A moment later, she was watching the video in question, with the game themed Villains narrating over a still image of a burning building.

Uber began, with an excited announcer's tone. _"Welcome gamers, to a very special production by Uber and Leet"_

Leet picked it up in the same tone. _"Now, I know it's been awhile since we've really uploaded anything. We've been busy, and we still don't have a regular episode, but we've got a special treat for all you loyal fans."_

Uber again. _"Recently Leet's been working on a flying Spy-Camera for use in filming our show."_

Leet. _"The other night, during a routine test, we picked up a little scuffle between a new Cape in the Bay and the Dragon of Kyushu himself."_

Uber _"The PRT calls the new girl 'Lilith' but we don't know what she wants to be called, so we're just gonna go with 'New Girl' to keep from pissing her off"_

Leet, in a far more serious tone. _"Trust us, you do not want New Girl mad at you."_

Piggot furled her brow at this. Lilith was dangerous, to be sure, but to call attention to it specifically? The duo spoke in unison for the last line.

 _"So, without further ado, let's play!"_

The still image began moving and then zoomed out to a scene of Lilith and Lung standing across from each other while the Undersiders stood at the sidelines. The gamer due were narrating, but the Director paid them no mind as she watched the battle on the screen.

She'd had suspicions about Lilith, ever since the students at Winslow had supported Shadow Stalker's story. These suspicions had been supported by security cam footage of Lilith breaking into stores, or of witness testimonials. Lilith's fangs, her claw, the way she moved…

This footage confirmed it. The girl was savage, moving across the ground on all fours, tearing into Lung with tooth and claw, the director could even see blood around her mouth early in the video. The girl was an animal. A monster, plain and simple. Director Piggot's thought turned to days gone by, and of shadows and beasts, of another human turned monster, of injury and of cowardice and betrayal. It wasn't quite the same situation, the two humans turned monster weren't quite the same, but Director Piggot felt that the only reason the city still stood was because the girl was a brute. She couldn't take a city the same way he could.

"Director," interrupted the agent who brought this to her attention, "are you aright? You're shaking."

"I'll be fine," lied the director. "It's been a stressful few days."

"If you say so."

As the video finished, with a last question of "How strong does New Girl have to be for Lung to run away like that?" from Leet, Director Piggot dismissed the agent and called for a fe forms to be brought to her. Lilith's threat ratings needed to be adjusted and the Wards and Field Agents needed to be informed that they were no longer to engage Lilith without Protectorate support. This was going to be another long day.

*Break-Lisa*

Coil's men worked fast. It'd only been a few days since the old lair burned down, but now the Undersiders' new lair was bought, paid for, and inspected. Apparently, the building hadn't been abandoned for very long. All that needed to be done was to replace the doors and locks before it was up to code. They'd already had furniture shipped in, and Regent and Rachel had their lost clothes replaced.

Lisa, Brian, and Alec were sitting in the main room of a large apartment on the second floor, which they were planning to turn into a meeting room. Lisa had already checked it for bugs planted by workers under Coil's employ. Brian wanted to talk about Lisa's actions the other night and why she took action without consulting the rest of the team.

Rachel came up into the room and sat down.

Lisa asked her, "How's Taylor?"

Rachel shrugged. "She swallowed a whole thing of pills, then took a nap."

"Okay then," Lisa replied, "we have an hour or so."

Lisa then looked around the room for any sign of Taylor's mutant flies. No sign, even with her power. "We're clear."

Brian stood up and faced the others.

"Okay, Lisa. What were you thinking, hiring a new recruit on your own like that? Especially out of nowhere, that's not like you."

Lisa took a moment. "Everything I said the other night was true. She's been screwed over like we all have, she could use some friends, we could really use someone on her level of power on the team, and it'd be better if we picked her up than some people who only care about her for her power. But, there's another reason."

"And that is?"

Lisa took a deep breath. "Our boss doesn't have our best interests at heart."

The others were confused. Briand asked: "What do you mean?"

"Our boss," began Lisa, "he has a power. I'm not sure what. It could be some kind of long range probability manipulation, or some kind of reality warping, or maybe he works like a videogame and he can save his progress and restart if he screws up. I don't know. What I do know is that he's been using his power to make sure our jobs go well. He could have saved us from Lung the other night, but he didn't."

Brian questioned this. "How do you know that his power wasn't why Taylor ran into us when she did?"

"Because when I called him about bringing in Taylor and buying this place, he was surprised that we were still alive."

"Well," countered Brian, "he might not have known until it was too late, and-"

Lisa cut him off. "Let me explain what kind of person out boss really is. He forced me to work for him at gunpoint and he's said and done things that make it clear to me that he'd torture us for information if he had too or would kill us in a heartbeat if we got in his way. You're working for him because he can fake up a paper trail to make it look like you're earning money legitimately. As soon as that becomes inconvenient for him, it stops. If he thinks you'll be too hard to control, he might threaten your sister."

"...Damn."

"Exactly. And that brings us back to Taylor. She's potentially one of the strongest capes in the country and she's only going to get stronger. Having her on the team makes us significantly more valuable, so the boss is less likely to fuck us over. And, I saw this when she first jumped Lung-She hates bullies. If I told her about what the boss did to me, and who he was, she'd probably try to kill him as soon as she could. I know how to take him down, but until I can figure out how his power works, we're all dead the second I try… Except she might be able to protect us if she get's a little stronger."

There was silence for a moment, and Brian answered her. "So what do we do about..."

"We keep doing any jobs he gives us,"said Lisa "And we do them well, until we get a chance to bleed him dry and drive him out of town. Until then, we can't give him any sign that we know what he's really like."

"So," said Brian, and Lisa could tell he wanted to know even without her powers. "Who is he?"

"I can't tell you, not yet."

Brian tensed up. "If you do manage to take him down. Can you keep the paper trail going?"

"Compared to bleeding him dry in the first place, keeping that going would be a cakewalk."

Brain seemed to relax a bit"...Okay. Now Taylor's one of us now, but just so we're clear, what are everyone's thoughts on her?"

Rachel spoke first."I'm with Lisa. Better to have her with us than against us."

That was odd: Rachel rarely agreed with Lisa. Lisa already knew the real answer, but asked for the benefit of the others: "Why's that?"

Rachel's posture changed, and she adopted a tone as if she was explaining "She's strong. There's something about her. Like a wolf, or a dog, that's so big and strong that it doesn't need a pack. If she wants us to join her, we should. I'm not fighting her."

About what Lisa expected. Brian turned to ask the next member his thoughts "Okay. Alec?"

Alec was hard to read, even with Lisa's power. "I tried to give her a little tug on the way here the other night. When I was um, staring at her ass. I couldn't get a good grip on her and I don't think she even noticed. It's like her nerves are so different from anyone one else's, the way they're shaped, and the way they go through her body. That black stuff on her head isn't hair. The big ones are full of nerves and the little ones are nerves. While I was trying to get a hold of her, I could almost feel her body changing, and then this thing happened. I can't really describe what it was like, but I couldn't even look at her nerves anymore. I can't mess with her body at all. If we piss her off and get into a fight, I'm cannon fodder."

"Lisa?"

"Oh, there's so much that I don't know where to begin." After thinking about it for a moment, Lisa began again. "Rachel's right. Taylor has the instincts of an apex predator. And they were pushing her to fight Lung. Like, she attacked him because she hates bullies and what he was doing to us set her off, but she kept fighting because something inside her was pushing her. She adapted to the damage that he and Oni Lee inflicted on her in the fight, like Crawler of the Slaughterhouse Nine but not quite as extreme as the rumors about him. She seems to have some ability to incorporate traits from what she eats into herself. She got taller and gained more muscle mass after eating Lung's flesh, and I think that the metal from the beer can she ate yesterday was absorbed into her bones and carapace."

Lisa took a moment to breath and think about where to go next. She's been getting more information on Taylor every time she looked at or thought about her, even now. "Taylor's regenerative ability seems to work by fixing damaged tissues instead of making more, that is to say she only replaces tissues when the tissues are gone or unsalvageable. Her body is constantly adapting to the events surrounding it. Lung was the first time she's eaten human flesh. The same instincts that drove her to attack Lung are what compelled her to eat his flesh-They're driving her to grow stronger by fighting strong opponents and consuming the flesh and blood of strong beings, but she herself has more influence on her actions that her instincts do. She's still human in general mindset, but…"

Brian seemed to sense her hesitation. "But?"

"She believes implicitly that she's psychic. She claims that her telekinetic ability, her shaker power, is the same as her thinker ability, and from her body language her mastering those mutant flies she cooked up is another application of the same power. She's otherwise sane, so I'm inclined to believe her when she says she's psychic. In order for her to have legitimate psychic powers, as opposed to a thinker or shaker power that imitates or replicates a psychic power… She'd either need to have significantly more brain matter, a more complex brain structure, a brain that's infinitely more efficient that anything occurring in nature, or a combination of the three." Lisa began, speaking slower than before as she tried to stay focused. "Taking Regent's claim that her nerves were changing, it's safe to say that her brain structure is radically different from human norm. She still behaves like a human, but I'm not sure how long that'll last."

Brian began to look worried at that, but Lisa paid him no mind as she continued. "Growing after consuming Lung's flesh is the first time she's increased in size or put on more muscle mass. She had problems with how she looked and the changes to her body had previously either upset her or were something that she felt nothing either way on, but her stronger, more muscular and more feminine figure seems to have changed that. She likes the way she looks now, and it's improved her confidence significantly. She has developed a great deal of pride in her new appearance. I suspect that whatever her problems with bullies involved her appearance… Shit!"

Lisa clutched her head as she began to experience a migraine.

"Lisa,"said Brian, expressing concern for his team mate. "Are you alright?"

"Thinker headache," replied Lisa before continuing. "New information about Taylor's powers. They don't just change her based on what she's doing or what she's been hurt by. They're trying to fix whatever problems she has about herself."

"Okay then. Do you know why she's using those drugs?" Brian clearly wanted to know if there was a reason for Taylor's habits of if they needed to add "Get the new recruit clean" to the todo list.

"Uh, from what I can tell she's been dosing herself in order to build up an immunity. The same with the beer in her mini-fridge,though it seems that however much she's consumed to become immune has given her a taste for it. She can't even get buzzed from the amount that she drinks, but she still drinks it. Um, considering that last night, when she drank over three and a half liters of LSD in one sitting and only suffered mild hallucinations for a minute, I'd wager that at this point she's practically immune to most drugs and toxins."

"That could come in handy. Have you managed to get anything about her Bio-Tinkering?"

Lisa sighed. "She believes that she can make things whole cloth instead of modifying existing organisms, but she needs to construct some kind of structure first. That's why she asked for those chemical and biological samples when we were talking about things she'd need. She already has ideas for bigger and more numerous organisms. Ordinarily I'd suggest we try to make her minimize the number of creations she makes… But she literally connected her mind to those flies, and while I'm pretty sure that her improved temperament is based on improved confidence from her new body, I'm not going to rule out that she has some need to create and connect to these things… That's gonna cause problems if we can't find out a safe balance between 'enough for her sanity' and 'few enough that the PRT doesn't decide to evacuate the city and glass it to prevent another Ellisburg.'"

There was an awkward silence before Brian responded. "Lisa. I trust you, but if this gets us killed-"

"It won't. I think. Alec, Rachel. You've been quiet. Thoughts?"

"All I'm hearing," said Alec, "is don't piss off the scaly blue chick. I wasn't planning on pissing her off to begin with."

Rachel remained silent.

The Undersiders went their separate ways soon after, Rachel and Alec to their own apartments in the building, Brian back to his apartment elsewhere in the Bay, and Lisa to go arrange a few things. They still needed more stuff for this old apartment building to be a proper lair, and getting it meant going through Coil. Lisa's last thought as she departed, massaging her temples to deal with her headache, it was that as soon as she knew what his power was, Coil was fucked.


	12. Trial 203

**Trial 2.03**

I'd finished constructing communicators for the Raiders last night, sort of a Tinker-Tech Walkie-Talkie. Once I'd had two to test, it was surprisingly easy to make enough for everyone. I was considering building more for the dockworkers who weren't Raiders, but that was a something for later.

"And this button here allows you to send out a general message to every active communicator on our private channel. It's meant for use in emergencies or if you find information that everyone needs to know." "So," I asked, "any questions?"

The Raiders all responded with nos or shakes of the head, so I dismissed them and returned to my office. I might be a superhero now, but I'm still in charge of the dockworkers association, and that meant paperwork needed to be filled out. I'd been getting behind on it in the last few days, worrying about Taylor… I still couldn't focus on the paper work. There were two more things I could think of to set my mind at ease enough to get back to work. First, I had to go speak with my private contractors.

*Break-Taylor*

"What are you laughing at Taylor?"

I stopped chuckling and got back to work" It's just that I never thought I'd see the day when it'd be easier to put the nails in by hand then it is to use a hammer."

Rachel wanted to convert part of the basement-the real basement, not my sub-basement, into kennel space, so she could have some of her dogs close to her. Brian and Lisa were out and Alec was in his apartment doing god knows what Since I've got nothing better to do right now, I volunteered to help. Rachel shrugged in response to my statement, and I took another nail and forced it in place.

I stepped back and looked at the bit of drywall I'd finished installing. This wasn't going to be a big or fancy kennel, just a few gated cubicles for individual dogs. "You're not much of a talker, are you Rachel?"

"No," she said, as she went over to a corner where her dogs were sitting, waiting for her, and pet one of them-The rottweiler, Brutus.

As she did that, I went over to where the rest of the supplies were. We had cuts of drywall, wooden frames, dog beds, and those little gates you put in doorways to keep dogs or small children from wandering out of a room. Like I said, this was a pretty simple kennel.

I picked up one of the dog beds and placed it inside the kennel… cell? Cage? Neither word fit, it was pretty sizable and and this bed certainly felt comfortable. "I think this one is ready."

Rachel gave a signal and brutus stood up, and she walked him over. Another signal and the dog sat upon the dog bed. I think he seemed comfortable, but dog emotions didn't feel like human emotions. They were off and… Oh. I tried feeling Brutus's emotions, then Rachels and… Okay, that made so much sense.

"People are hard, aren't they?"

Rachel looked at me, but she didn't say anything.

"There are just so many rules to talking to people, and-"

"Shut up!" I didn't need my psychic powers to tell how irritated she is.

"I'm sorry. I'll..."

She didn't say anything. She just walked over to the supplies to get one of the gates.

After about a minute, I could sense her starting to calm down but now I felt fear and regret from her. Was she afraid of me? To change the subject I gestured to Brutus. "Can I pet him?"

She looked at me, then at her dog. She turned her head inquisitively, and didn't feel as scared anymore. "Let him smell you and get your sent. If he let's, you can pet him."

I presented the back of my hand to the dog, who gave me a sniff. After a moment he was rubbing his head against my hand. I took that as a sign that he was okay to pet, so I gave him a pat on the head, taking care to keep my claws pointed away from me. Rachel was hard to read, but it's obvious that she loved these dogs more than anything in the world. I don't doubt for a second that she'd never forgive me if I hurt one of them, even by accident.

"Whats with you?" Rachel seemed confused.

"What do you mean?"

"You just met us, but you're already talking like a friend. Trying to get us to tell you stuff. What's with you?"

Ah. That make sense. I stopped petting Brutus and turned back to Rachel. "It's simple. I can feel your emotions. I know you're not planning to hurt me, so it feels safe to be open with you. I know we just met, but it feels like I can trust you. Besides, if we're gonna be working together and living together, we might as well be friends."

Rachel didn't respond, though her emotions shifted in ways that were hard to read. She came over and put the gate down by the kennel, then started petting Brutus. "Dogs are so much easier than people. Dogs don't want anything big. They just want food and walks and to be petted. People are hard."

"I get it Rachel. I don't understand people sometimes either. The stories I could tell you about someone I thought was my friend…" I sighed. "Let's make a deal. I won't lie to you, and if you want to know something about me, I'll just tell you. No tricks, no games." I didn't think she'd ask, but if she did I'd tell the truth. I don't want her being scared of me. I'd rather be friends.

Rachel didn't say anything else, but… well she didn't smile, but her mouth kind of curled upwards just a bit. It's a start. She got back to work, and so did I.

*Break-Danny*

It was late afternoon when I was finally able to get away from the dockyard long enough to head to the headquarters of my independant contractors. "Uber, Leet. Can I have a word with you"

Leet looked up from a device her was working on-Another one of his flying cameras from the look of it, and Uber was on the far end of the room.

Uber cracked his neck as he walked over to me. 'What do you need, boss?"

I cleared my throat. "Look, this might be a lot to ask, but ever since the night of the fight, we have a general idea of where Taylor is. Could, could I bother you to look for her when you have the time? I know that's not covered under our arrangement, but-"

Uber cut me off with a raised hand. "I get it. You're worried about your girl. It's not that hard to take a walk through the docks for any sign of her, and I think Leet can have one of the Sky-eyes set up around where she disappeared around. Right?"

Leet wasn't paying attention he seemed so utterly focussed on the Sky-Eye in front of him that-and then he switched it on. It floated up, and he grabbed a tablet and started making the eye maneuver around the room we were in, doing several complex twists and turns. He even made it do a barrel roll. When it landed safely, he jumped from his seat and began jumping up and down laughing like a lunatic on amphetamines. "This proves it! Hahaha this proves it!"

I looked to Uber, but he shrugged, so I turned back to Leet. "Proves it?"

Leet pointed to his sky-eye. "This makes four. Four, exactly the same. They all work perfectly. Nothing malfunctioned. Nothing blew up. Hehehe!"

I got it now. I knew his reputation, and I've known him for a few months. He's the tinker who can make anything once. If he could build the same thing four times….

Uber spoke up. "Anyway, Leet, our boss is asking us if we'd mind keeping an eye out for his kid. You think we can dedicate a Sky-Eye to keeping an eye on places we know she's been?"

"Oh, yeah that's really easy! You want a Sky-Eye, you can have it." Leet then picked up the one he'd be working on and handed it to me. The villain in my employ seemed quite manic.

"You, you're quite chipper today, Leet." It was actually a bit frightening, and that's coming from another Tinker.

"Why wouldn't I be? This is… This all happened since I worked for you. If you need a tool you can't make, you can ask and if I can do it it;s yours. If you want a dozen sky-eyes they're yours. You want the BFG from Doom or some Spartan Armor, it's yours. You want a Giant Robot… Excuse me" Leet then ran from the room. I knew the feeling. He just got an idea for some kind of gadget and just had to do something with it before he lost it. It'd happened to me before, and from my understanding it happens to all Tinkers.

I put the flying camera down on the Table Leet had been working from. "Okay. That happened."

Uber laughed. "Well, he's got a lot to be happy about. He's spent years having stuff blow up in his face or losing gadgets forever in freak accidents. Now he doesn't have to worry and he can tinker all he wants on whatever he wants. He got the idea for the Sky-Eye after we started working for you, and he thinks that his problem was some kind of mental block. He thinks that working for you has something to do with overcoming that block. Anyway, it shouldn't be too hard to keep an eye out for your girl. I'll remind Leet about the cameras later, and I'll take a look in person in a bit."

I sighed. "Thank you." A handshake and an exchange of pleasantries later, and I was on my way back to the dockyard.

*Break-Taylor*

"So what's this one do?" I was playing a videogame with Alec. A multiplayer shooter. It was just something to pass the time, and well, I really should try to get to know him even if he… Kind of gives me the creeps.

"Well," he said, "That's one's probably one of the easiest class to get used to. You've got the highest defense, the most health, and the big gun. Really all you do is shoot and soak up damage. The others have their tricks to them and you need practice to play them well." Then he shifted in his seat.

"Well, I guess I'll take this one then." I hit select and then we had to wait for the last guy out of nine on our team to pick his. Alec had chosen his, a guy with a flamethrower, and… God damn it. "Alec, really, it's a bit flattering, but I'd appreciate it if you'd stop looking at my boobs."

Alec stumbled in his seat. "Well, um… You know, if you didn't want people to look you could cover up some."

I traced a claw across the now opaque carapace on my lower ribs-It even kind of looked like ribs now. All my carapace was a nice, solid, and shiny bluish silver. I'd put on a bit more muscle mass over the last few days, and gotten like, half an inch taller. The claws on my toes had grown out nicely too."I'm still growing and changing from the other night, and I only really had the one complete set of clothes. I don't want to get something, only for it to be too tight the next day or get torn by a spike growing on my arm." Besides, it's not like anyone could see anything particularly interesting anymore.

"...Okay, whatever." Alec went back to focusing on the game, and the last guy on our team picked his character.

We played in silence for a bit. This game was actually pretty fun. It of a challenges running around corners, falling back at just the right time to get healed or pick up more ammo. After about ten minutes I figured I had the hang of it and went off ahead, deeper into enemy territory to draw their fire and shoot them up and… "And I'm dead. What happened?"

"You got cocky," Alec said. "You went off on your own and got outnumbered by more experienced players. What you tried might have worked if you'd played more, gotten a better feel for how your guy plays, or unlocked some of his better alternate gear. But since you're a total newb, you got yourself killed."

I thought on that for a bit, but then I respawned and got back in the game. We played for another few minutes, but then the session was over. I stepped up from the couch to stretch for a bit,and I looked over at Alec again and… Damn it.

"Look, I'm sorry if this comes out bad, but Alec… What's wrong with you?"

He set down his controller. "What do you mean?"

"You know that I can feel emotions," I said as I gestured vaguely around my head in a way that I hoped would make it clear that I was talking about being psychic… His laugh told me that I was wrong. "Your emotions, they feel wrong. Every time I focus on you in particular, I can't help but notice how wrong they feel and it creeps me out. I wasn't going to say anything, and playing this game with you was fun so don't get me wrong, but… What's wrong with you?"

"Oh," he said. "I'm a sociopath." H then picked his controller back up. "The next session is about to start."

"...What?"

"It means I don't feel emotions as strongly as other people do. Some I can't feel at all. I really don't like talking about it."

I was a bit freaked. I'd seen the movies. A sociopath was… "What?"

He rolled his eyes. "Look, this isn't like the movies. I'm not some psycho who kills people and tortures bunnies for fun. I don't particularly care about most other people, but I'm not going out of my way to hurt them. Even if I did get off on that stuff, it's just not worth my time when I can just turn on a video game.

Was that why he played these games? I blinked, and he continued. "Look, you don't have to worry. Even if I was some psycho killer, you're cool. Even if you weren't cool, I know better than to piss you off. Now can we get back to the game? Seriously, I don't like talking about this."

I took a deep breath and went back to playing. Learning he was… like that was a bit of a shock, and his emotions were still weird and scary and wrong, but as far as I could tell he didn't mean me any harm so I just kept playing. It was a bit weird, but after a bit it started being fun again, so.

*Break-Danny*

I'd just finished my initial sketches for a set of surveillance cameras better than anything non-tinker on the market-Just a little something to help clear my head, when I heard a knock at my office door. "Who is it?"

"It's me, Mr. Hebert" Uber.

"Come in, Mr. Dabney"

The villain in my employ stepped into my office, dressed in civilian garb. "I um, took a stroll though a certain part of town. Nothing on the development you're looking for, but some stuff you should know." He was speaking in vague and general terms, in case of bugs or eavesdroppers. I didn't think it was too big a risk, but he's been a villain longer than I've been a parahuman at all, so if he thinks it's a risk...

I blinked. "Go on."

"Well," he started, "the Azn Bad Boys… You'd think after what happened to Lung, they'd be itching to prove they were still on the top, but they all seem to be watching and waiting for something. They haven't even been reacting to the groups of Empire Eighty-Eight thugs sneaking around through their territory. I'm just a little worried that sooner or later things are gonna get heated and since the ABB have territory on the docks…"

"The fight might spill over into the dockyard." Shit. This all just kept getting worse. "Anything else?"

"No."

""Okay, thank you. If you could-"

"Keep an eye out. Got it."

"Thank you again, and goodbye Mr. Dabney." Uber showed himself out. It looked like I'd need these surveillance cameras more than I thought.

*Break, Taylor.*

After a long day of helping Rachel and hanging out with Alec, I figured it was time to check on my latest project. Down in my sub-basement, in my little experimentation corner, I had a small structure growing. I didn't exactly have enough room for a full sized structure down here, but the pillar and hooks of this downscaled version were forming well. Just in case, though I grabbed a beater and scooped up some creep from the floor by the tumor, added some crushed up beetles, and poured the mixture over the miniature hatchery.

"Taylor? You down here?" That was Brian coming down. I didn't think that he or Lisa would be here at all today.

"Yeah, I'm down here." I placed the empty beaker on my table. "What do you need?"

Brian was coming down the stairs as I turned to see. "We've got a job. Everyone else is already in the meeting room but I want to make sure on you're on board with it."

I didn't like the sound of that. We'd already talked about the kind of jobs I'd be willing to do. If he wanted to check if I was onboard, well, we probably weren't robbing Nazis. "What job?"

"Well, Taylor. Our boss wants us to rob a bank." He wasn't looking at me as he said it.

"I don't feel comfortable doing that job. I think I'll be sitting this one out."

He was looking at me now. "Yeah, and that's what we agreed to, but… There are some other concerns that might change your mind."

I raise an… Well, I don't have eyebrows anymore, but the general area an eyebrow would be I guess. "Other concerns?"

"This is the first job we've gotten since you joined. We all think the boss wants to see how well you do on a job."

"Really now?" I said. That made sense. "Anything else?"

"You've got a reputation now."

That was surprising. "I do?"

"Yeah. Uber and Leet had a camera in the sky. They caught the tail end of your fight and it's all over the internet. By now the whole country knows you as the girl who beat Lung so bad he ran away."

"That's not what happened." It wasn't. Lung called a draw when he heard the sirens, if that had gone one for another minute I'd-Brian cut off my train of thought.

"Yeah. I know. I was there. But that doesn't matter. What matters is that everyone in town thinks that's what happened. If the Undersiders get caught robbing a bank and we don't get out in time, we're either getting New Wave or the Wards. The second it gets out that the girl who thrashed Lung is with us..."

I saw where he was going. "The Wards get called back and they send in the Protectorate"

He nodded. "And we can clear out in the confusion. "

Okay, that was a good reason, but… "The people in the bank?"

"That'll be your job." He gestured to my arms. "You stand there, make a big speech about how if nobody moves, nobody gets hurt, and then stand there and be intimidating. With your emotion sensing you'll know if someone is going to try something before they try it."

"And that way, no one gets hurt. They just lose their hard earned money." Yeah, this was sounding better, but still…

"Not really. We're not taking money out of people's hands or draining the accounts. We're just going after what's in the vaults. Banks have insurance for that. Only the bank loses money on this. Banks have plenty of money and they screw over the little guy all the time. I figure losing a few thousand every now and then isn't that bad."

He was trying to convince me that robbing the bank wasn't that different from robbing criminals. I could feel it in his emotions, but there was another reason why he wanted me on this job. "What else? You really want me on this job. Why?"

He sighed, and he clearly didn't want to tell me this, but he did. "Look, the reason I do this is because of my sister. My Mom's a neglectful crackhead, my Dad's not fit to raise a teenaged girl. I'm trying to get custody, but for that I need all sorts of things that need money. The only way to get enough money for all of that is villainy. Our boss is the only guy in town who can pay out enough and fake up a paper trail to make it all look like legitimate respectful work."

'

Ah. Okay, I got that. It's a good reason to want me to go, but… "That doesn't really answer my question."

"Lisa… Lisa didn't want to tell you the whole story yet, but our boss isn't a good person. I don't know all of the details, Lisa's our line of contact, but the most important thing is that the second we get inconvenient, we're gone. The best case scenario is that the money and paper trail both get cut off and my sister stays in a bad home." Brian looked at the ground. "Worst case scenario, our boss kidnaps her and uses her to control me. If you come with us on this job and show off, we become more valuable, and the boss is less likely to screw us over. At least that's what Lisa said."

I took a moment to pick my jaw up from the floor. "Why-why do we work for someone like this?"

"Well, we didn't know he was this bad when we were hired. Now we're kind of stuck. Lisa has a plan to take him out, but she needs more time. Until then, we keep working for him."

He was telling the truth. About all of that. But… "What's your sister's name?" Shit, why did I ask that?

"Her name is Aisha."

God damn it. "Okay, I'll do it. Just… Promise me that, that we'll try not to hurt anybody."

He extended his hand to shake "I promise." I took his hand and we shook on it.

"Okay," I said as I started heading upstairs. "I'll do it, this one time. And I want the full story on this guy we're working for."

"You'll have to ask Lisa," Brian said as he himself began to climb, "She's the only one who knows the whole thing."


	13. Trial 204

**Trial 2.04**

I was finally making headway into my paperwork when I got a call. "Hello, "I answered.

"Mr. Hebert." It was Mayor Christener.

"Yes, Mr. Mayor?"

He sounded hesitant as he replied. "This is difficult to ask, but… Since this morning, crime has been up in the city. Super crime and normal crime. It's, unusually high and unusually frequent, and it's been getting worse all day. I've also gotten word that the gangs are acting up. I'm afraid that something big is going to go down sometime today or tomorrow. Now, I appreciate your situation and that you can only produce so much technology at a time, but I'm afraid that the armor you've provided won't be enough."

I didn't follow, but he continued on. "If you could pass along a message to Bastion? If he and his sidekicks would be willing to reinforce the police for a few days, it'd be very appreciated and there might be a reward in it for them..."

Roy Christner knew I was Bastion, and… That's right, the unwritten rules. Don't talk about who a Cape really is. "I'll see if I can pass that along."

"Thank you, Mr. Hebert. Oh, and I've already informed the Chief of police that Bastion may be offering his support."

"You're welcome, Mr. Mayor, and understood."

I heard a click as he hung, up, then hung up myself. Then I pulled out my com unit and sent out a general message.

"This is Bastion. The Mayor called in a favor. Any Raider that's willing to help out our city and the police in the next few days, suit up and meet me at 1PP ASAP. Over."

I got a few affirmatives in reply, then began heading to a bunker to suit up myself. Getting called by the mayor to help with crime. It's almost like one of those old comic books or cartoons from before Parahumans started showing up. All I need are some poles to slide down into my cave. I smiled as I headed out.

*Break-Taylor*

As we drove through the rain, Lisa turned from the passenger seat to look back at Rachel and I. "You guys okay back there?

"I'm doing fine," I said, and Rachel nodded.

Our boss had provided us with what Lisa called a "throwaway van." An old, cheap van that wouldn't draw too much attention, with doors in the back. The idea was that if we had to abandon it for some reason, it wouldn't be that big of a loss. Lisa and Brian were upfront, with Brian driving. There was a second row of seats that Alec took up by himself, and Rachel and I were sitting in the back with her dogs, the same three I'd already met. Traffic was slow today. I wasn't sure we'd even get to Brockton Central Bank in time.

Brian put the car in park and killed the engine. "Okay, we're stuck here for a bit, so we might as well make the most of our time. One last time, does everybody know their part of the plan?"

Lisa started. "After you park the van in the alley next to the bank, we all get out and put on our masks." Brian's outfit was just bike leathers and his helmet. Rachel's was civilian clothing with a fur collar and a dog mask, and Lisa had tight purple body suit on under her civilian clothes. Alec already had on his noble's outfit, missing only his drama mask, which was why he was in the second row-Harder to see him. I didn't have a mask or costume to change into. I had a cheap cloak from a discount costume shop that I was wearing to conceal who i was until the right time. It itched a bit on my scales

"Once we're ready," Lisa continued, "I enter the codes on the emergency side door, we're in no alarm. However, the guy in the security room will probably see us on the camera, so we'll have to move fast from there."

Alec picked up where Lisa left off. "Once inside, there are gonna be a couple of offices we'll have to check. If anybody's inside, I use my power to trip them up a bit until they agree to keep quiet. Then we march them into the main lobby with us."

"Brutus, Judas, and Angelica run into the lobby," began Rachel. "Me, the dogs, and Taylor scare the shit out of everyone."

"Me, I throw off my cloak, declare myself to be the girl from the video, Brian and I give the 'nobody moves, nobody tries to be a hero, nobody gets hurt' speech, and I give out my new name." The others reacted to my voice, subtly. They could tell I was nervous.

At least I had a name for myself. I was pretty proud of that name. I ever mentioned it to Kerrigan when she popped in on my dreams last night, and she said it was appropriate.

"Anyway," said Alec, "once everybody is in the lobby, I head back to the side door to keep a look out for white hats trying to be sneaky."

"And then you, Taylor, and I head to the vault to grab the cash" finished Lisa, clearly referring to Brian. "Once the vault is open, I head to the manager's desk to check if there's any response to the break in and alert you all if anyone is on the way, while Taylor goes back to the lobby. With any luck, we'll be in and out in twenty minutes, tops."

"Good, good." Traffic was moving again, so Brian started the engine and got us going again. After a few minutes, we came to another red light and he looked back to Rachel and I. "I think we're close enough for you to get started."

Rachel nodded and did… something. For a second I thought her eyes were glowing, but I blinked and it was gone. Her dogs started growing, but it was so slow that I barely noticed it. The changes were much more noticeable a bit later, when their pelts started splitting at the seams and muscle and bone began poking through. Was the bone supposed to be that dull lavender color? Oh hey, Angelica's tail was starting to look like a human spine.

It was starting to get very cramped in the back when we finally got to the bank. The dogs were still growing as we piled out of the back. Tattletale had finished with her mask and makeup before Rachel and I were let out, so that just left us girls waiting on the guys to finish up and join us. There was a joke in there, somewhere. Bitch put on her mask just as Grue and Regent joined us in the back, and we quickly moved to the side door. Tattletale did her thing and we were in.

There were dozens of rooms we passed by that we had to check for… for people to take hostage. I was already beginning to regret coming here, but, well… I've made my bed, now I have to lay in it. I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Hey," said Tattletale as I turned to face her. "Relax. The whole reason you're here is to make sure we don't have to do the thing you're afraid is going to happen. Just take a deep breath and relax, and remember: Chances are, this is the only time you'll have to do this."

I took her advise, and turned just in time to see Grue marching a man in his thirties out of an office, arm twisted behind the man's back, and that breath caught in my throat. We moved onto another room, where Regent grabbed an older man in a pink shirt. Regent, Regent's power let him mess with bodies, and every time the man would try to struggle or shout out, Regent would mess with the man's body in a way to stop him.

I was just happy that there were no more people on the way to the main lobby. Brian and Regent made the two hostages kneel at the door. "Bitch," Said Grue. "Are the dogs ready?"

I turned back again, to get a look and-holy crap those things got big! Nobody said anything about the dogs' eyes glowing when they were full sized, either. Bitch didn't answer Grue, she just gave a signal and the dogs ran into the room, barking and growling and snapping, Bitch running in a bit after. That was my cue. I strode into the room and waited for Grue and the others to pick up the rear.

"Alright, everybody on the ground," Grue shouted, "now! This is a robbery, nobody moves, nobody gets hurt. Some of you might know us, we're the Undersiders. We've got a new member and this is her first job. You might know her, she was the girl kicking Lung's ass six ways to Sunday the other night." He turned to face me. "How about you introduce yourself to the people?"

I threw the cheap cloak from my shoulders and stood tall. "Thank you, Grue. Now everyone listen up. My Name isn't 'Lilith,' or 'new girl,' or 'girl,' or 'Oh God My Arm,' or any of the other stuff The PRT or whoever has called me. My name is Empress! Be sure to tell the cops when you're giving your report." I finished by smiling, nice and wide, to show off my fangs.

Grue continued. "This is how it's gonna go: Bitch is gonna keep an eye on you, and Empress is gonna help Tattletale and I with the vault. After that, Empress is gonna come back and take over for Bitch. Anybody tries to run or be a hero, well, you've seen the dogs. Empress, you want to explain this?"

I stretched my arms, and then I started posing and flexing like a bodybuilder. "My beautiful body wasn't anywhere near this big or strong when I tore Lung's flesh from his bones. I get bigger and stronger every single day." I threw my arms forward, palms out, fingers spread. "And these can shear through steel like it's wet tissue. I would absolutely hate it if I had to grab someone and accidentally carved them like a turkey..."

I took a moment to see how the… hostages reacted to my speech. I could see some of them crying, and the air was full of fear and despair, but they all paid attention to everything I said and… Hatred. I could feel a burst of anger and hatred directed at me and me specifically. I turned and saw a teenage girl, with curly brown hair and freckles glaring daggers at me. She wasn't afraid of me. She hated me… I can't blame her, I'd hate me too if I were sitting there right now.

Okay, time for phase two. "Bitch," I said, "Keep an eye on things here for a bit, okay?"

When Bitch nodded, I went to the vault with Grue and Tattletale. We walked to the vault in silence, but when we got there Tattletale turned back to me again and said "You're doing great, Empress. I can hardly tell it's your first time" Well, that couldn't possibly have been and more suggestive if she… Damn it, she did that on purpose. She chuckled a bit.

"Just, just open the damn vault," I said while face palming.

She did, spining around the metal wheel several times in both directions until she figured out the combination and had it open. Then I, the big strong brute, pulled the heavy vault door open as the girl in purple sauntered over to the manager's desk. "Need anything else from me?"

"I'll call you when the bags are full," said Grue. Normally the Undersiders would have loaded the money into bags and strapped them to Bitch's dogs, but Tattletale suspected that the Boss cared less about the cash take away and more that the robbery was happening at all. So, Grue was just going to break open some filing cabinets stuff some documents into a satchel, and then just load stacks of cash into a backpack and a duffel bag. I was the team's brute, I carried all the heavy shit to the car. It was only fair. I left for the lobby as Grue got to work.

Apparently, in the time it took Tattletale to figure the vault combination and me to get the door open, the Brown Haired girl had tried to stand up and do something. Bitch was.. Well, based on her emotions, she was glaring at the brown haired girl, and all three of her dogs were growling quite loudly.

I shouted to the brown haired girl: "Back on the ground, now!" She just turned to glare at me, and once more I could feel the hatred flowing again. All of the fear and sadness and hatred in the room was starting to get to be too much, but if I was going to make sure that no one else got hurt, I had to take it… even if it was about to get a whole lot worse.

I made a show of cracking my knuckles as I walked, slowly but with big strides to the brown haired girl. "I get it. You thought that you could sneak out, or maybe try and take one of us out, while our backs were turned. Well, you fucked up." I was standing right in front of her. "Now, I said-"I pointed a clawed finger at her chest-"Back, on the grou-"

With all of the anger she was already feeling, it was hard to pick up the intent to attack until after she'd put a hand on my body. She must be a cape, a striker of some kind. Whatever she was expecting to happen, however, didn't. Instead all of the girl's hatred was quickly replaced with fear and panic and she lowered herself to the floor and scooted back up against the wall. You know, now that I think about, the girl does look a bit familiar. A brown haired girl with a striker power and… Oh shit. There was a Cape in the Bay who met that description. A member of New Wave, the capes who unmasked themselves and went without secret identities in order to ensure that they could be held accountable for their actions. This girl was Amy Dallon, the one Cape that half world would turn on you if you fucked with her.

"Panacea… Fuck! Just, fuck!"

Bitch looked at me, and Tattletale looked up from the manager's computer. "What is it, Empress?"

"We're keeping Panacea hostage!"

Tattletale looked at the girl on the floor. "Well, shit."

Oh god, oh fuck. My first official day as a villain and I kidnap Panacea and give her a panic attack. If I wasn't going to be Caged before I was now. I looked to the panicking girl. "Okay, you… Panacea, you need to calm the fuck down before you have a heart attack or something. You are the only person here who can fix those."

The other hostages started laughing, and it came to my attention that my own panic had cost me my intimidation factor. "Okay, everyone, stop laughing. I don't want to hurt anyone but I…. Fuck it, Bitch!"

The Dogs, who had stopped growling, half-barked, half-roared. Bitch must have them trained very well, she barely finished her whistle before they started. Regardless, that stopped the laughter. Well, the panic coming from Panacea… Or should I be calling her Amy since she's out of costume? Anyway, her panic attack seemed to be ending, so I turned back to her.

"You," she said to me. "What the are you?"

I turned my head to the side. "What, have you never seen a monster cape before?"

"I have, you're nothing like them." I wasn't? She was suddenly shouting; "What the fuck are you?!"

I took a breath and shook my head. "There are so many ways to answer that question, I just don't know where to begin."

"I hate to interrupt a Villain monologuing to a hostage," cut in Tattletale, "but the Heroes are here. Empress, hold off on doing your thing for a bit, okay? And back away from the windows."

I did as she said as she stepped up from the manager's computer and went to the front doors to check something. "Well, we're screwed."

I was starting to get a very, very bad feeling about this. "What?"

"When we were planning this job, I was working under the assumption that we'd get like, three Wards. There are six on the streets, and either an seventh or maybe a Protectorate Cape on the roof if I'm right."

Fuck, without a word I came closer to get a look at them on the street. Yep, there they were. Aegis, in his rusty red costume. He was an Alexandria package, after the most famous flying brick cape in the world. He could fly, and he had some ability to adapt to injury. A dozen right to his left was the 12 year old space warper, Vista, in her armored costume of squiggly lines. Directly to Aegis's right was Clockblocker, a hero in white armor with the ability to temporarily freeze you in time and a perverted sense of humor. Kid Win, the Ward's tinker, was floating on a hoverboard next to a cape I've never seen before, young man who looked to be made of metal. Between the unknown and Clockblocker was Gallant, in his powered armor.

"Tattletale," I asked, "who is that guy?"

"That's Weld, a Case 53 from Boston. His body is made entirely of various metals and metallic alloys. He possesses the ability to absorb metals into his body, as well as the power to shape shift his limbs into weapons… also, those metal clothes are part of his body… All of the other Wards are at least a little afraid but he's not… He's not capable of fear." Tattletale shook her head. "Sorry. Anyway, he spent a while with the Boston Wards, but he was brought in a few months ago, officially to help deal with the under staffing problem…" I could practically smell the bullshit... "but off the record you turning up is the reason they asked for that help, so..."

Great, there's more to feel guilty about. Some kid got brought to this hellhole because of me,and now I might have to fight him. "Any clue who's on the roof?"

"Not yet."

"...Is getaway plan B still gonna work?"

Tattletale raised a finger, clearly meaning to ask for a minute. "No. If was just three or four of them, we might have been able to sneak out when they called for backup, but now, with seven of them, including an unknown, they have more than enough people to keep an eye on all the doors and trip us up if we try to get out."

"So…" I began.

"We're screwed." She finished.

"We could say we'll kill the hostages," interjected Bitch.

I could feel a ripple of fear pass through said hostages. "No, Bitch. The deal was, we do this without hurting anyone."

I couldn't see her expression, but I got the feeling she was a bit annoyed with me right now, so it surprised me when she said "fine" and backed down.

"Wait… They aren't expecting much, if any back up," said Tattletale. "Plan B won't get us out of here, but it'll buy us time, maybe a few hours. So, Empress, get back in character because you're on!"

I took a deep breath, and then another, and then I went to the front doors, opened them, and poked my head out. "Hey Wards," I shouted! "I know you all want to play hero, but this robbery is for big kids only! Come back when you graduate from preschool!" And then I flipped them off and closed the doors. ...Regent wrote those lines.

I moved over to one of the windows, next to Tattletale, to get a look into the street. It looked like they were all talking amongst themselves. "You think it worked, Tattletale?"

"Yeah," she said, "I think it did. We have at least an hour before we're screwed now, unless all Hell breaks loose."

I ran a hand through my hair… tendril… things. This all would have been so much easier if I'd had a few more days to finish my hatchery before this. I could have spawned some drones. They could have helped keep an eye on things in the lobby and helped grab money from the vault. We could have been in and out in ten minutes and we wouldn't have to worry about getting caught in this clusterfuck.

"Okay everyone," I said to the gathered hostages. "You've probably guessed by now, but all of that earlier was just an act." I took another deep breath. "It looks like we're gonna be here a bit longer than we said we would. Just, everybody stay calm and cooperate and we won't hurt you." I lost my big scary tough girl persona when I freaked about Panacea, I wasn't gonna get it back by doubling down. "We don't want to hurt you. That's not the kind of people we are-Not the kind of person I am. Just, just stay down and we'll be out of your hair soon."

"Bullshit." I turned, Panacea was talking. "You didn't seem to mind hurting those PRT Agents a few months ago."

"Okay, 1: That was an accident. 2: Once again, they were shooting first and not asking questions, like every other time. 3: I figured that they could take it, they had armor." I held my hands, fingers out, palms to my face. "4: These babies don't come with instruction manuals. How was I supposed to know the guy's arm would come off if I hit him there?"

Okay, yeah, now that I've said it out loud it sounds bad, but still. Panacea just rolled her eyes. I could tell she still hated me, but the sadness and fear of the other hostages was lessening… I don't know if that's good or bad right now, but at least I could think a bit more clearly.

"Now um…" I was interrupted by Tattletale patting me on the shoulder. "Can I have a word with you, Empress?"

"Oh, um, sure." I let myself be pulled back, into the Vault. I noticed that Grue had finished stuffing the bags.

"Grue," said Tattletale, "We have a situation." Lisa took a minute to recap the official leader of our group on the clusterfuck. When she was finished, all Grue could say was "Shit."

"I have a plan though," said the girl in purple. "I've been looking at the crowed. We might be able to turn some of them to our side… Some of them believed you when you said that you didn't want anyone to get hurt, Empress." She smiled at me. "The right kind of sob story and some of them might be willing to go to bat for us… Or for you, at least."

I got that she was planning something, but I didn't get what she meant. "What do you mean, Tattletale?"

"What I mean," she replied, "Is that you go out there and you tell your story. Not everything, of course. Even I'd have trouble believe what you told us about Shadow Stalker if we didn't know her, but poor young girl hunted like an animal after what was objectively the worst day of her life? Never getting a chance to tell her side of the story? It'll pull their heartstrings. Not to mention make the PRT look like a bunch of dicks to the public."

"That is," she continued, "if you're okay telling your story to a crowd of strangers?"

I wasn't sure if I was… Getting my side of the story out now that I had a chance to was tempting, but after what I did… Lisa had been wrong before, and here she… "You don't actually believe it'll work, do you Tattletale?"

"Okay, completely honest," she replied, "No. It might, but from what I've seen only a handful are likely to turn. But it's worth a shot, and if nothing else it's guaranteed that it'll keep them busy while the rest of us try to figure out how to get out of here. Besides, getting your story out there might be good for you."

I took a deep breath. "Okay." Tattletale and I left the vault, and she went back down the hall to get Regent from the side door.

I Stepped into the middle of the lobby. "Okay everybody, it's story time! Panacea over there asked what I was, so I'm gonna tell you all. Now, who here knows where powers come from?" I raised a hand. "Come on, show of hands?" Nobody raised a hand. "Well, they come from what's called a Trigger Event. Now, the gist of it is that if you have the potential to get powers, and you have one really bad day, you pass out. Just a bit later, you wake up with a feeling like whole world has changed, and then you have powers. Now, exactly how bad a day it has to be varies from person to person. Me? I had my trigger event on the first day back from school after winter break. You see, someone had filled my locker with bloody tampons and left them to rot over break."

I had to stop my story, because a woman puked. "Yeah, I threw up too." Yet another deep breath. "So then some bitch grabs me and shoves me into the locker, and even though the hallway was full, I spent a couple of hours stuck inside-Boom, trigger event." I posed again, showing off my body. "I didn't look like this before I went in there. I woke up and I could feel my body changing. Nails becoming claws, teeth becoming fangs, scales growing all over my body. Don't get me wrong, my new body is cool now, but then? That was the last straw. I broke, I panicked. I tore my way out of the locker and out of the school. The PRT says I went on a rampage and attacked a student, but I only remember one other student in the hallway and all I did was knock her down."

I was starting to get worked up a bit. I took another deep breath. "I tried to go home. The PRT was already there. No questions, at all, they went straight to trying to catch me in that fucking foam. I hadn't done anything yet, unless having a fucking panic attack is illegal now. I haven't been home in four months." my voice broke, for just a second. "I haven't seen my dad, or talked to him, I haven't slept in my own bed. They've been saying I've been robbing convenience stores, but that's bullshit too. I stole money from drug dealers so I could leave money to pay for what I took. I don't know why they've been hunting me like an animal, unless it's because I look like a monster."

I started pacing, hoping that if I did nobody would be able to see my face. "My new friends here? They may be villains, but they're the first people to treat me like a human being since I triggered. So, if anyone wants to know why I'm holding you hostage today, well, you can ask the PRT why they've decided to put more effort into catching me than they've put into putting away Lung or Kaiser." I stopped pacing with my back to the hostages.

Tattletale had gotten back with Regent and the two of them were discussing things with Grue. They hadn't been paying attention, they already knew the gist of the story. Bitch knew about as much as they did, but this was the first time I told anyone exactly what happened when I got in the locker. A giant wet nose pressed against my back, and I turned to see one eyed and one eared Angelica trying to nuzzle me. Even and big and twisted and monstrous as she was, she was acting like an affectionate puppy. I gave her a gentle pat on the head, while wondering when Bitch gave the signal to bring her out of attack mode.

The emotions in the room where… I was getting a lot of sympathy and everyone had seemed to calm down. I went to a window to see if the Wards were still in the street. They were, and they were joined by someone else, a figure in black armor and a cloak of the same shade. Shadow Stalker, my would be murderer. I guess she was the one on the roof. They didn't look like anyone was coming anytime soon, so…

I walked back into the lobby. Nobody seemed likely to act up after my little story, but still, it felt better to be doing something. I found myself by Panacea again, and, on a whim I focused my emotion sense on her. She didn't hate me anymore, but she felt so confused. I was about to say something when there was a loud crash from the front of the Bank.

A girl in a white one piece dress, a cape, and a golden Tiara was floating above the ground where Bitch had been standing, a hole in the way behind her.. The girl, Victoria Dallon, Glory Girl, was holding Bitch by the front of her shirt. Glory Girl turned to see me, standing next to her sister, and then she then threw my new friend. Her mask fell off mid-flight, and Rachel hit the far wall and crumpled to the ground. She wasn't moving, and her dogs all leaped into position around her and began growling at the flying Brute who'd harmed their master.

Glory Girl paid the dogs no mind as she flew to myself and Panacea. She shouted at me, "Get away from her," and on instinct I jumped to the side. "Amy," she said to Panacea, her younger sister, "I'm here, you're safe now. Mom and Dad are on the way, and the Protectorate and the rest of New Wave will be here once they've taken care of something down by the dockyard"

The dockyard? What could possibly have happened by the dockyard that would take the whole protectorate and half of New Wave? Was Dad in trouble? I had to ask "What's happening at the dockyard?!"

The blonde girl looked at me, and I didn't need my psychic powers to tell that she thought I was scum. "If you must know, Lung's tearing it up down there. Apparently he got into a fight with Hookwolf."

Oh god. Oh, oh dear god no. If Lung… Dockyard, he could be hurt, or dead… And Rachel was hurt, she might be dead… This isn't how this day was meant to go…

"Wait a second," the blonde Dallon sister said. "Are you naked?" What did that-"You're naked. What kind of sick, perverted freak robs a bank naked?"

Now I was mad, and I made that clear as I began stepping towards her. "Are you serious? You, you just came recklessly charging into here. If I were Lung, or Kaiser, or any other villain, you would have just everyone in this bank killed." I took another step. "The first thing you do after getting in here is, is… You could have just killed someone, and Bitch doesn't have a kill order." one more step. "And instead of worrying about that, decide to call me a 'perverted freak?' "

Glory girl's hair was flowing as if the wind was blowing in her face. She didn't falter as I stepped closer still, she just put her fists up. "Stay back, or else, Lilith."

"My name isn't Lilith, Glory Girl. It's Empress!" I was right in front of her, looking her dead in the eye.

Glory girl shouted"I warned you!" Then she threw a punch. Her sister screamed, "Vicky don't, but it was too late.

I caught the punch, bare handed. I think the impact broke my wrist, but I didn't care. "You all saw it," I said to the room as a whole. "She threw the first punch." Then I raised my other hand, and curled it into a fist. I noticed that there was a faint blue aura about it. Glory Girl actually looked a bit scared. "How about," I asked her, "We take this outside?"

And then I punched her, hard. The psychic energy building up around my fist exploded in a pulse of telekinetic force and the blonde in the white dress went flying clear across the bank, though the wall, with an exit hole right next to the one she came in though… I'd work on my aim later.

"Panacea," I said to the cape in question, "I'm really sorry about this." That said, I sprinted across the bank and leaped through the hole I'd sent Glory girl though, landing on all fours about five feet from where she landed.


	14. Trial 205

**Trial 2.05**

I was riding shotgun in a police car, wearing my powered armor. I was Bastion now. We were heading out to a residential district to check on a report of a "mysterious individual." It was probably nothing, but apparently the Mayor's sister lived in the neighborhood and we don't want her getting hurt on the chance we're wrong. We were at a red light when I got the call over the com unit.

"Bastion, come in Bastion. Over." Kurt, or rather, Lieutenant, was trying to get me. I'd left him in charge of the Dockyard while I was out

"Bastion here," I answered. "What seems to be the problem, Lieutenant?"

"We've got a situation: Lung's fighting that Hookwolf Guy and they're getting awful close. We've got the Yard on lock down and everybody's in the Bunker, but..."

"Understood, stay alert, but unless Lung starts trying to tear up the Yard, you should be able to wait it out."

"Understood sir,an-The Protectorate have arrived, Sir."

"Well then, let them handle it."

"Understood, Lieutenant out."

"You've all been a big help today," Said the officer at the wheel. His tone and the look on his face, they told me that he meant it. "It isn't often that one of you big shot heroes helps out us regular cops. I don't know about anyone else on the force, but I know I appreciate what you're doing today."

"You're very welcome, officer."

"I mean it, though," he added. "We've been even busier than normal these last few months.I bet you a million dollars we're gonna get there and it's a painter's van idling or something."

"Do you get calls like that often?"

"We didn't used to, but the whole town's been on high alert ever since the PRT did that press conference on that girl..." The officer trailed off, awkwardly.

"Now," he picked up, "I can't help but notice that the stuff you and your boys are wearing looks an awful lot like the stuff we've been getting from that Hebert fellow down on the docks." He sounded hesitant. "Now, your Lieutenant just said that you were down in the dockyard. Now, I know you capes have rules, and… You don't have to answer by the way, but I have to ask..." He trailed off, the obvious question left unsaid.

I thought about it for a minute. Even if this man decided to spread the word, it was more or less an open secret that Danny Hebert and Bastion were one and the same. And really,a secret identity is meant to protect your loved ones. My friends all had access to my weapons and armor, and that just left Taylor. Taylor with her identity open to anyone who could look, living on the streets. If anyone went after her to get to me… Taylor fought the most dangerous cape in the city to a draw. As much as I want to protect her, any enemies I make would have to be insane to think that they could go after her to get to me. As much as it pained me to admit it, right now I couldn't protect her.

So I answered with a sigh. "Danny Hebert and I are one and the same."

"Okay," said the officer. "I just want you to know, I believe you about your girl. I've got a niece at Winslow, a freshman, and she says your girl never picked a fight with anybody, even with half the school shittin' on her. My niece has been in trouble before, but she ain't a liar."

"Thank you," I said to him. "The Mayor's office is investigating what happened, do you think your niece would be willing to tell that to the people there?"

He hesitated. "...I'll ask her about it the next time I see her."

We drove in silence for another few minutes before I spoke "It's hard. Knowing she's out there, on the streets, fighting. Not knowing when or where I'll see her again."

"I feel you."

It was then that a call came in on the radio: "Attention all cars, there is a parahuman incident in progress within and outside Brockton Bay Central Bank. The Wards have responded but due to the nature of the altercation the following roads have been temporarily closed." The man on the other end read off the street name for the bank and some of the roads leading to it.

"Well," I said. "At least I know my little girl isn't at the bank. I haven't seen her in a while but I know I didn't raise a bank robber." I laughed a bit, and the officer laughed with me.

*Break*

The Wards were all staring at Glory Girl and I as we came through the wall. I could feel the shock from here, and I couldn't blame them. 'Lilith' just threw the so called Invincible Glory Girl around like a rag doll. Speak of the devil; the life size Reckless Cape Barbie was pushing herself off the ground, fear, anger, and confusion radiating in equal measure.

"Lilith, Empress, whoever you are… That, that hurt?!" Glory Girl erupted from the ground, flying right towards me. I was still on all fours so I simply ducked to the side, raised myself to sort of a squatting position, and as she flew past me I grabbed her leg.

"What the-" I cut her off by quickly jumping to my feet. She kicked me in the back with her free leg. I felt my carapace crack from the blow but I stood strong. "Let go you-" Once more, I cut her off, by taking my free hand, wrist recently healed, and wrapping it around her leg, giving me a solid two hand grip.

And then I swung her overhead and slammed her into the pavement, just like in an old cartoon. The pavement cracked and I could feel my claws beginning to dig into her Glory Girl's calf, so I lifted her back, up and slammed her down again. Then I let go. The point was to hurt her, not to tear her arms and legs off… Yet.

I let her push herself off of the ground again, though I could hear pained moaning. Then, once she'd gotten up to her knees, I showed her my bloody fingers from where my claws had dug into her. "It looks like someone isn't so invincible after all, is she?" She was scared of me. Good, after what she did she should be. On a whim, licked the blood from my fingers, tasting the slightly sweet metallic flavor. "Hmm, I think Lung tastes better than you do."

She was standing and facing me now, and although she tried to give a brave face I could feel the terror building within her. It was delicious. She was clutching her right arm, possibly broken or dislocated, when she looked me in the eyes and said "You're insane, a complete and total psycho."

I slapped her across the face. I wasn't using anywhere near my full strength, but it should have been enough to hurt her. She didn't react with pain though, physically or from emotions.. Either she was harder to hurt than I though or-I had to jump back when she tried to get me with a left hook.

"You know," I said, as though she hadn't tried to punch me, "I've been wondering if I haven't been going crazy for a while now. Your input is appreciated." I leaned to the right as she tried to punch me again.

"Here's the thing, Gee-Gee," I said, while smiling wide enough to show off my fangs. "I'm psychic. My brain is so powerful that I can literally read your mind." That wasn't exactly the truth; all I can feel is intent and emotions for now, but she didn't need to know that.

I dodged another punch as I continued. "Every attack you're going to make, I can see it coming from a mile away." I jumped just as she began to try and kick my legs out from under me, and I brought both of my fists down on her head as I landed, knocking her to the ground. "And you're just not good enough at fighting to hit me anyway."

"That's impossible," I heard her say, as she tried to push herself up. It's strange, I know that I've hurt hurt her, so why aren't I hurting her now? I stepped on her, pressing just hard enough to force her back down.

"Says you," I said, grinning. The fear within her skyrocketed and I could feel a bit of shock… Wait, maybe I can read minds after all? That's fucking awesome."They said that it was impossible for people to fly, but look at you." I found a spot that felt like something was broken, so I ground my heel into it, smiling when I heard Glory Girl gasp in pain. "The bottom line is, I know that you're afraid of me. You're so scared that you can't even think straight." I savored the feeling of her surprise and growing fear. "If you were, well, you'd have run the first time I let you get up."

I felt myself rising and found Glory Girl pushing against the ground. If I remember things right, she can dead lift a full ton. I don't weigh anywhere near that much, so instead of trying to put all of my weight on her, I sent out my pulse to force her back into the ground. She groaned as she slammed into the ground. Then I stomped on her good arm. I heard a satisfying crunch just before she screamed.

"Let me tell you something, Miss Dallon," I said as I stepped off of her. I kneeled down to flip her onto her back as I continued with "You risked the lives of a bank full of hostages with your little stunt." I looked Glory Girl in her terrified eyes. "Worse, you could have killed my new friend." I felt a single tear roll down my face as I hoisted the defeated cape up by the front of her dress. "If you killed her-"my voice cracked for just a second, "If you killed her, I'll kill you. Slowly."

And then I threw her into the street. She hit the ground ten feet away, bounced, and rolled another five. She was twitching and I could hear her moaning in pain. "Lung put up a better fight," I said. Really I was kind of disappointed, I guess part of me was expecting her to-my thoughts were interrupted by what felt like a great deal of fear heading my way.

I was forced to dodge an incoming blast of some sort of emotional energy. I felt another fear beam and dodged again. I turned in time to see the Wards mobilizing-Gallant kept firing more of those emotion beam and I could see Aegis and Kid Win flying off. I just focused on not getting hit by those beams.

After about a minute of jumping and dancing myself out of harm's way, and away from the prone Glory Girl, I sensed a presence behind me and turned just in time to be punched in the chest by Aegis. "Look," I said as I shrugged off a punch that clearly hurt him more than it hurt me, "I really don't want to fight you." That's the truth. Aegis hasn't hurt any of my friends, he hasn't needless risked anyone's lives.

The hero in rusty red replied: "Then you'll surrender?"

I literally laughed in his face. "Yeah, I'll get to you on that when Hell freezes over." I sidestepped another fear beam as I replied.

"Well," said Aegis as he himself dodged the beam I'd dodged, "If you're not going to surrender, we'll have to fight."

"You could always just let my friends and I go?"

"I'm afraid we can't do that," Aegis replied, "not after what you did to Glory Girl."

He threw another punch and I there and took it. He didn't hit anywhere near as hard as Glory Girl could kick, and I heard a crunch as his fingers broke against my carapace. "Gee-Gee over there started it. Bitch needs to get her priorities straight." I rolled my neck. "You sure you wanna do this?"

He responded with another punch, which I again just kept taking. I only moved when Gallant fired one of his emotion beams at me. Then I got shot by one of Kid Win's lasers. I'd been wondering when he was going to get involved, but damn. Those things stung like a bitch.

Aegis disengaged and Kid Win took his place, riding towards me on his flying skateboard and firing blasts at me from twin laser pistols. I tried dodging back, but he was firing far faster than Gallant's beams, and sometimes Gallant's beams would be coming at me and I'd have to dodge into laser fire, and… Okay, after a while it didn't sting so bad, but seriously it's annoying.

I sensed a great deal of anger coming up and stopping a good twenty feet away,and I turned in time to see a mass of Shadows turn into a black clad cape leveling a crossbow at my chest. She fired, and the dart broke on my carapace. I looked down to see some weird liquid flowing down my scales.

I shouted to her, "was that a tranq dart, Stalker?!" I'm pretty sure it was. "What, do you not wanna try and finish the job?!" She responded by leveling the other crossbow at me, so I jumped at her, but the coward turned to shadow and fled.

I was starting to notice that the street was a bit bigger than it was earlier and-fuck. Kid Win had pushed me into a trap. The street was warped all to hell, and Aegis was back, this time with Clockblocker and Weld. I tried to jump back as Clockblocker reached out to grab me, but I landed in Weld's open arms and found myself trapped in a reverse bear-hug with my arms pinned to my sides. Ahh shit. This just like that video game. I'd have to think if I was gonna get out of this.

I was facing Aegis, and he spoke to me. "Are you willing to surrender yet, Lilith?"

"Okay, one," I said. "My name isn't Lilith, My name is Empress. Two," I said with a bit more venom in my voice than I'd intended, "fuck you, I'm not going." I could have gotten out of Weld's hold easily, but I made a show of struggling against his grip. I wanted them to think they had me.

"Empress," said Weld. His emotions were weird, in a way different from Alec or Rachel, but he was apparently trying to sound empathetic. "Look, I get it. Your body changed, you're confused, and your scared, and you're lashing out. I've been there, and there are plenty of other capes in the same boat. It's scary." What the fuck was he talking about? Oh, he must think I'm a Case 53 like he is. "And when the PRT comes after you, trying to capture you before you hurt yourself or anyone else, you panicked, and you ran, and you're scared, I get it. The PRT aren't the bad guys. I don't agree with how they've handled things, but I've been where you are now, and getting brought in was the best thing that's ever happened to me. If you'll just come with us-"

"I'm gonna cut you off there, Weld." I continued to make a show of struggling. "I get what you're trying to do, and you seem like an upstanding guy, but you've got a few misconceptions. First, you don't know what I've been through." I paused for a moment, wondering best how to handle this… Ah to hell with it, it's not like it was a big secret, the street was empty, and they probably already knew. "My birth name is Taylor Hebert. My Father is Danny Hebert, my mother is Annette Hebert, deceased. I was a student at Winslow High until my trigger event, even though my middle school grades were good enough to get into Arcadia. I deliberately chose to go to the shitty school to stay with a friend who betrayed me the summer before freshman year." I continued to struggle. "And if any of you try to go after my father to get to me, you will wish that the Slaughterhouse Nine captured you because your deaths would be far less painful."

None of the Wards were expecting that, I felt shock and fear from some of them and even a hint of surprise from Weld. Except from Shadow Stalker, off a few feat away by Vista. All I felt from her was anger and disgust.

"So, as you probably understand now," I continued, "I'm not a case 53, so no Weld, you don't get it." I stopped struggling. "Now look, I get what you're trying to do, and you seem like a nice guy, but I meant what I said-the fucks in the PRT have been out for my blood since the day I triggered, and they're not getting me unless I'm in a body bag. I'm sorry though,"I said truthfully.

"For what," asked Weld.

"That you got dragged to a hellhole like Brockton Bay on my account," I said. "And for this." Then I twisted my hands and sank my steel rending claws into his belly.

I don't know if I actually managed to hurt him, but he let go and I managed to get to my feat. I turned and punched Weld as hard as I could, and he went flying back a about a dozen feet. I think. It was hard to tell with all of the spatial warping. Anyway he landed on a parked car, so…

Clock Blocker tried to freeze me, but out of nowhere his hand changed trajectory and he tagged himself in the crotch. I could see the Bank from here, Regent was standing at the hole in the wall that Glory Girl had made, He gave me a thumbs up when he saw me looking, but I didn't responds-I was too busy dodging another one of Gallant's emotion beams. Aegis was back on the offensive, trying and failing to hurt me with his punches, and after a moment Kid Win continued his barrage of laser blasts. By now they weren't even irritating.

After a few minutes of just letting the heroes wail on me to no effect, I began to notice that the streets were starting to get smaller. I wasn't able to pay much mind to it because at that Moment I could feel disgust and anger at one side and Fear coming up from behind. Shadow Stalker fired another dart to at me, while Galant shot at me with another emotion beam, With Kid Win shooting at me from one side and Aegis in front of me, I couldn't dodge one without putting myself directly in the way of the other, It was a no brainer however, Stalker's dart couldn't hurt me so I jumped right into it.

Then it went right past my scales and buried itself somewhere in my belly. It didn't hurt, but it was uncomfortable and confusing and distracted me just long enough for one of Gallant's Emotion beams to hit me. I fell to my knees and a dry sob escaped my mouth. I couldn't stop myself, I thought…Mom dying… Emma betraying me… A flute stolen from my locker… ayeah and a half or harassment and violence. Old wounds tore open, and with them the floodgates. I was on my knees crying in front of the Wards and I couldn't bring myself to care. Then I thought about everything that's happened since then, and… I robbed a bank. When Dad found out… If Dad was even still alive...

No! Fuck no, I've been there before. I'm not going back. Like that all of the sadness and despair I was feeling was gone and I began to feel such a rush that I couldn't help but laugh hysterically. I pushed myself off the ground and stood to my feet. I could feel the emotions of the assembled Wards, and they were freaking the hell out. I looked at them and they were a lot further away than I thought they were… The street was so small… The buildings so close together… It was getting hard to breath... The smell of rotting blood, the feeling of maggots crawling on my skin… the metal digging into my flesh and I couldn't stop laughing even as I fell to my feet and fuck! Fuck fuck fuck!

I stood and threw my arms to the side, screaming and sending out my pulse. A pulse bigger than the one I'd used against Lung. Within seconds, everything ease back to normal… Other than the scorch marks on the ground around me, that was. The strange mixture of fear and hysterical glee faded to be replaced by rage. Gallant and Vista had fucked with my head, I didn't like that. I charged at Gallant, still screaming, and he panicked and began firing more of his emotion beams at me, and I dodged and danced around them before leaping and tackling him to the ground.

"Don't," I said as I sank my claws into his armor, "do that," as I ripped circuits and servos from his steel suit, "again!"

I stood, that armor was heavy. There was no way Gallant could move in it with it this damaged. I turned to face Vista, the other Ward who tried to fuck with my head. She was more scared of me than Glory Girl had been, she tried to stretch the ground between herself and I, but it wasn't fast enough to stop me from jumping to her. I grabbed her by the arm and hoisted her up. I heard a pop as I dislocated her shoulder with the sudden jerk.

"You? You don't fuck with me either," I said, more calmly than I had with Gallant. I turned and threw her by the arm directly at an unfrozen Clockblocker, knocking them both to the ground.

Shadow Stalker was next in my sights. While I charged at her, she fired another bolt at me. Rather than dodge it or take it, I used my telekinetic pulse to knock it aside and continued on my charge. As I reached out to grab her, she turned to shadow, so in a latch ditch effort I pulsed again. Hard, but not too hard, and the mass of shadow was pushed away, towards the wall of a nearby building. I don't know why, but my would be killer became solid again before hitting the wall. She tried to stop herself by putting her arm forward, and got an obviously broken arm for her trouble.

I sensed a presence coming up behind me, so I turned turned and, as if on instinct, slashed with my claws. Seconds later, Aegis's arm fell to the ground. This, this was enough to shake me from my rage.

"Oh my God," I said, bringing my hands up to my face. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine," the leader of the Ward's replied, "It's just a flesh wound." Then he punched me with his good arm. Once more, I just stood there and took it. He couldn't hit hard enough to hurt me when this fight started, he can't now.

"You know," I said as my regret began to be replaced by annoyance, "just letting my friends and I leave is still on the table."

"I'm afraid I can't do that," Aegis replied. I was honestly considering ripping his other arm off, since it didn't seem like such a big deal to him, when I felt an impact on my back and a burning sensation big enough to actually hurt.

I turned in time to catch a blast of light in the chest, but I managed to see Kid Win, floating there with-where the fuck fuck did he get that? He had a massive laser cannon, at least fifteen feet long with a barrel four feet across. And then I got shot again. Seriously, that fucking hurts. I managed to dodge the fourth blast coming my way and began running towards Kid Win in a zigzag pattern. After two misses he stopped firing and just tried to keep his aim on me. I was five feet from him and fifteen below him when I managed to jump up to him at and angle. Then he pulled a lever and released a cone of sparks and lightning, shocking the hell out of me and knocking me back to the ground.

"Fucking Tinkers," I said, as I the feeling returned to my arms and legs. "There's no way way in hell you had that thing on you this whole-" And then he shot me in the back with the normal laser function of the cannon. I could feel chunks of burned Carapace starting to flake off.

I rolled to dodge another blast and managed to hop to my feet. The Wards' Tinker was about to fire again when he suddenly stumbled and ended up firing into the street a good few feet away from me. At first I was confused, but then I realized that Regent must have messed with his body. That's twice today that he's saved my butt. I'd have to find some way to thank him.

I took the opening the stumble gave me to jump and grab the Tinker's gun. Gravity and a good tug pulled it from his grip and down to my level. I turned and ran for about a dozen feet, then started looking the gun over for a latch or secret compartment or something. Eventually I managed to rip out what I'm pretty sure was the battery, which I tossed back over my shoulder. Then I took the cannon in both hands, ran back towards Kid Win, and chucked his gun back at him, knocking him over and making him crash into the ground.

All that left were Aegis and Weld… No, Weld was still on the car I'd knocked him into. I walked, slowly, with my arms out, until I was close enough to talk to him. "So, would you like to surrender? Because seriously, I just took out your entire team." I gestured to the various incapacitated Wards. "You can't win."

"I don't need to win, Empress. I just need to buy enough time."

Buy enough-Oh shit! Glory Girl had said that her mother and father, Brandish and Flashbang where on the way. I honestly didn't want to fight two more capes… Especially once they saw what I'd done to their daughter.

"Look," I said. "I'm really sorry, I really don't want to do this, but I really don't want the PRt to get their hands on me either." Then I ran and punched him in the chest. I could hear his ribs crack with the impact, but he didn't go down. Not that I expected him too, with his power. I jabbed him with my other hand, stabbing my claws into him… I'm pretty sure I managed to puncture one of his lungs, and still he stood tall.

So when he tried to punch me with his still attached arm, I caught it with one hand and use the other to slash the arm clean off. Then I kicked him in the shin and took off a foot with the claws on my toes.

"You've got one good limb left, Aegis. Are you going to give up or am I gonna have to rip your leg off and break your spine?"

He didn't answer. After a minute I realized that he was stalling and I punched him again. With one leg, it upset his balance enough that I was able to grab him and force him to bend in a way that broke his back. Then I threw him into the building that I'd made Shadowstalker crash into. He hit the wall, fell, and landed on my would be murderer.

I turned back to the bank in time to see the Bank and the street rapidly being encompassed in Darkness. I let out a breath and allowed it to engulf me. I found myself in a dark void and couldn't hear anything, not even the pained moanings of Glory Girl or some of the Wards. This was Grue's power. I felt someone take me by the hand and give me a firm but gentle tug, and then I was being led to somewhere in the darkness. I found myself being lifted up onto something, and then there was a sensation of high speed movement, with the darkness clearing out a few moments later.

We were all back in the van. Me, Brian, Alec, Lisa and… Rachel! Without thinking I pulled the brutish girl into a hug. She apparently wasn't expecting that, because she went stiff the second I did it. I immediately let go of her.

"I'm sorry," I said. "It's just, you-you're okay." That could have come out better,

"Yeah?" Rachel felt… Okay, she's still hard to read but she felt a bit confused.

"It's just, how?"

"Oh," Rachel said. "Panacea fixed me."

I had to ask "...Why?"

"I believe,"' Lisa cut in, "That her exact words were 'there, you're better now, go stop your friend before she kills my sister.' "

"But you were fighting the Wards by then," interrupted Alec. "So, basically that wasn't gonna happen. Those three put the cash in the car and got the dogs down to size, and I kept watch."

"Yeah, I saw that. You saved my ass a couple of times," I said to him. "Thanks." I looked and saw that, behind Rachel's dogs where the bags that I'd been meant to carry.

"Eh," replied Alec. "I was supposed to be making sure that Panacea didn't try anything, but all she did after healing Rachel was stare at Glory Girl, so I figured I'd fuck with the Wards."

...Okay, that's… Okay. I remembered something.

"Brian," I said, in a pleading tone. "pull over and let me out."

Brian asked me "why?"

"My Dad's the head of the Dockworkers union," I answered. "Glory Girl said that Lung and Hookwolf got into a fight down by the dockyard. I-I've got to get down there."

"Taylor," said Lisa. "Your Dad is fine."

I was incredulous. "How could you possibly know that?"

"Because of that new Tinker based in the docks," she replied with a wink. "You know, Bastion." She gave another Wink.

There's a Tinker on the docks? "Who?"

"Come on Taylor, you know this," Lisa said… "You don't know, do you? When was the last time you were anywhere near the Dockyard?"

I thought back. "I tried to sneak into my Dad's office down there about a week after I triggered, but..."

Lisa face palmed. "Okay, Taylor, I'm sorry. I thought you knew. Look, the Head of the Dockworker's Union, one Danny Hebert, your father, has been making an awful lot of noise about how the PRT is pursuing his daughter, you, like a criminal and that they've been ignoring evidence that she, that is, you, were innocent. At the same time, he's been building things. He's openly admitted to being a Tinker. Are you following?"

I nodded. My dad, my dad was a Parahuman? Was, was I-

"Yes, it's most likely that you triggering and going into hiding was his trigger event." Lisa… Okay, her powers were kind of annoying sometimes. "Now, your father's been building things up-The Dockworker's union have tinker tech tools and vehicles now, and the dockyard has been completely rebuilt in the last four months." It had? "Most relevant to this conversation now is a fortified bunker specifically for people in the Dockyard to hide in in the event of an emergency exactly like Lung going on a rampage through the area. If your dad is in the Dockyard, than he's perfectly safe."

I breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay then, now who's this Bastion?"

"You seriously didn't know?" Lisa sounded incredulous. "I could have sworn you knew. Anyway, about a week and a half before we met, a New Cape by the name of Bastion, with help from some normal people armed with Tinker-Tech armor and weapons, completely wiped out the Merchants. Bastion and his 'Raiders' were armed with Tinker-Tech exactly like your fathers. Even without my power it's obvious… Okay, breaking a big rule here, but it's obvious that your Dad is Bastion."

...My Dad was a superhero. My 7 and 13 year old selves' fantasy had come true. Part of me, part of me that was still a young Cape geek was doing flips and screaming

"So," Lisa continued, "We've concluded that you do not, in fact, need to be let out so you can rush into a situation where you're either going to die or get captured." I nodded in agreement with her. "So, take satisfaction that,despite the plan going straight to hell, we still pulled the job off perfectly."

Perfectly? "What do you mean, perfectly?"

"The goal," Lisa said, "was to get the cash, and maybe for you to show off what you've got." She gestured, over the seat, to the three bags. "We got the cash, and you got to show off. Yeah, it wasn't the way we wanted it to go… And I'm sorry about that, by the way, but none of us are dead and we didn't get caught."

I guess she was right, but it didn't really feel like a success.

"Also," Lisa continued, "There's a dart of some kind buried in your belly, about an inch to the right of where your navel would be if you still had one. You um… You might want to do something about that.

"Crap." I'd forgotten about that. Well, leaving it in couldn't possibly be good. "Okay, Rachel, could you scoot over? I kind of need to lay down for this."

Rachel did as I asked, and I lied down. I felt around on my belly, around where Lisa said, for anything that felt off. Once I was sure I'd found it, I took a deep breath and forced my clawed fingers past my scales and deep into my flesh. You'd expect something like that to hurt like hell, but to me it just felt weird. I wiggled around until I had ahold of Shadow Stalker's Dart. Then I ripped it out, along with a chunk of my flesh and plenty of my blood. Everyone else seemed a bit disgusted.

Except for Alec. All he said was "Cool" and went back to whatever he was doing.

"Look," I said to the others. "It's been a long day and I'd like nothing more than to just take a nap. Could, could one of you wake me when we get to the drop off?"

I was a bit surprised when Rachel was the one who nodded, but after everything that happened the last couple of hours I was just emotionally exhausted. I closed my eyes and fell asleep.


	15. Trial Interlude 2

**Trial Interlude 2**

The wards were already reporting to Director Piggot when Panacea arrived. She was let in just in time to hear Clockblocker say that "We saw every inch of her body, there wasn't one of those Cs anywhere on her."

"And when I tried to convince her to come with us," continued Weld, "She responded by giving her civilian name and the names of her parents."

"So we can safely rule out that she's a case 53," director Piggot finished for her Wards.

"I'll say," interrupted Panacea, making her presence known, "She's not a case 53 at all."

Everyone in the room turned to face her. "Good, you're here Panacea," the director said to her. "What do you mean?"

"While I was in the bank," began Panacea, "I tried to using my power on Empress-er, Lilith"

The director interrupted, "I'm aware of her chosen moniker."

"Panacea nodded and continued. "Now, when I use my power, I can do more than just heal. I get a look at what's going on inside of someone, and I can make other changes. I tried to use my power to force Empress's glands to produce a tranquilizer and knock her out and… I've seen Case 53s and case 108s. They're usually human on the inside. Even when they're not, they're genetically human. Empress is… She's changed on a cellular and genetic level. She looks almost human on the outside, but on the inside she's the most radically inhuman parahuman I've ever seen."

Director Piggot blinked. "Please, explain?"

Panacea cleared her throat. "I'll start at the smallest level. Genetically speaking, Empress has too many chromosomes. Too much DNA. about a third of it is recognizable as human-like, but the other two thirds are unlike anything I've ever seen. Worse, one of those thirds comes in gene patterns that should be mutually incompatible with the other third." Panacea took a deep breath. The, feelings she'd had when she'd used her power on Empress were beginning to return. "The telomeres at the end of her chromosomes are regenerating faster than her cells are dividing. She possess enzymes that repair her DNA far better than the equivalent enzymes in a normal human."

The director spoke up and Panacea paused. "This is interesting, but what does it mean?"

"Well," Panacea began again, "in addition to that, Empress's cells are different from a humans, or anything else I've seen. The cell membrane is structured differently, her organelles aren't quite the same and she has ones that don't exist in anything else I've used my powers on. Her cells make perfect copies, and repair cellular damage near instantly." Panacea took another breath. "Between that and the changes to her DNA, I think that she's clinically immortal."

"Immortal," Shadow Stalker interrupted. "Like, she can't die?"

"No," Panacea answered. "Clinical immortality means that she won't die from old age, or even age at all past a certain point. She'll never get old, but… There's more." Another breath, this was gonna be a long report. "Empress doesn't scar, and the way her cells reproduce, her regeneration is at least partially natural. Her biology is so advanced and full of so many redundancies that… Okay, it's possible to kill her, but I can't see it being easy."

Stalker didn't reply, but Aegis asked "Redundancies, like me?"

"No. Empress's body… It's constantly changing. I think, I think that's her power, just, constantly changing and improving itself on every possible level. Permanently. In the bank, she said that she was getting bigger and stronger every day, and that fits with what I saw."

"Could you explain these redundancies, Panacea? And her other… unusual biological traits," Director Piggot asked.

"I've written the full list down," Panacea said, taking out such a list, "But the most notable ones are… She has two hearts, neither of which are completely human in design. All of her major blood vessels and some of her less important blood vessels have copies connected to the second heart and I could see more growing while I was using my power on her." Panacea took another breath. "Her bones… Some of them are like human bone, but denser, but her skeleton seems to be made mostly of metal and crystals in layers. Her cartilage is like human, but not quite. Her nervous system is completely inhuman. Her brain is far denser and more complex than a human brain and both her brain and spinal cord have dozens of redundancies. Also her hair? That's not hair, it's part of her brain."

Gallant raised a hand. "While Empress was engaged with Glory Girl, she claimed to be psychic."

Panacea gulped. "And Vicky said that Empress read her mind during the fight. I'm not going to say that she is but… There's one other important thing about her brain. She doesn't have a Corona Pollentia or anything remotely like one."

Everyone stared at her in total silence.

"So," Panacea continued, "either she's not a parahuman…"

"Or she's evolved past the point of needing one," the director replied. "Is there anything else we should know?"

"I have reason to believe that trying to fight her will just make her harder to fight in the future."

Clockblocker responded: "What?"

"Empress has, it's been what, four months since she triggered? At the rate she's been changing, she shouldn't be as changed as she is. I compared what she looks like now to what she looked like fighting Lung in that video. She's changed too quickly." Panacea's fingers began to twitch "She became stronger over the course of the fight, she put on more muscle mass, and Lung's attacks became less effective, all far too quickly compared to what I've seen," Panacea continued. "She also has things that don't quite make sense to have with a power that's 'my body constantly gets better." Her glands are capable of producing opiates and synthetic drugs of all kinds, in addition to the hormones and chemical messengers that are supposed to be there."

"Please," Said the director, "Please tell me that you're not saying what I think you're saying"

"She adapts," Panacea replies. "Everything you throw at her, if it doesn't put her down, it'll just make her stronger."

Clockblocker's response summed up the thoughts of most of the wards: "Bullshit!"

The director raised her hands to her head and began rubbing her temples "So, we have a Parahuman that's constantly getting stronger, might be psychic, and is most likely a second crawler. She has declared herself as a villain, she might be psychotic, she's prone to violence, and there's evidence to suggest that she might be a canbibal." The director sighed. "Please, does anyone have any good news?"

"The good news," Panacea said, "is that your initial analysis of her character is off."

The director blinked. "Explain?"

Panacea looked down. "I um, I had a bit of a panic attack when I saw exactly what she was inside. She immediately dropped out of the tough girl persona and was worried that she gave me a heart attack. Throughout the occupation of the bank, she insisted that she didn't want to hurt anyone." Panacea took another deep breath. "She only became violent when my sister, Glory Girl, entered the Bank, used… excessive force in disabling Hellhound, commented on on Empress's nudity, and threw the first punch. Empress deliberately moved the fight outside the bank."

"At first, when we engaged," added Aegis, "it was because we believed that she would have finished off Glory Girl, but she stated that she didn't want to fight us and apologized to both myself and Weld during the fight. She also gave me several chances to give up and let the Undersiders leave."

"Only you and Glory Girl was hurt too badly," interjected Gallant. "She was mad at Vista and I, after our gambit, but not to the extent she was against Vi-Glory Girl."

"On the other hand," weld said, "Empress did claim that if we went after her father to get to her that we'd wish that the Slaughterhouse Nine had gotten us instead."

"So, she's only excessively violent when civilians are at risk or her loved ones are attacked," the director concluded. "That's good to know, however it's inconsistent with her actions regarding agent Plissken."

"Empress claimed that taking his arm was accidental," Panacea replied. "She said that she thought he could handle it because of his armor and was unaware of her strength or the sharpness of her claws." Panacea sighed. "She also claimed that her attack on a student was simply a case of knocking the other student down on the way out of the school, and wants to know why she's being hunted like an animal when her only crime was having a panic attack."

"She's lying," Shadow Stalker interrupted. "The girl she attacked needed stitches." Panacea had thought this odd. She had noticed that Shadow Stalker had stitched scars when she'd healed the girl's broken arm.

"If she was telling the truth about Agent Plissken's dismemberment," the director stated, cutting off any reply from Panacea, "then it's possible that she wasn't aware of the extent of the she inflicted while fleeing. Panacea," the director continued, "do you believe her claims?"

"I don't know," the healer replied.

"So it appears that the PRT may have made an incorrect conclusion with the facts available to us," Director Piggot began. "But, this doesn't change the fact that Lilith-Empress, has openly robbed a bank and declared her allegiance to a group of villains. Nor does it change the fact that she is known to have stolen illegal drugs from the Merchants for who knows what purpose." The director sighed "Empress is still a criminal, a villain, even if she's one we made, and she still needs to be brought in. However, with this new information about her abilities and mental state, I feel it would be unwise to pursue her actively. Wards, if you encounter Lilith, Empress, or whatever she chooses to call herself, keep an eye on her and do not engage. If she is actively engaged in a crime, contact the protectorate immediately."

The director stood. "I can't fault you for engaging today. It wasn't smart, but considering the circumstances I can't fault you for it. However, I will be having words with… some of you, for your actions after engaging later. Now, if you find yourself in a situation involving Lil-Empress, and she engages you or the situation turns violent, disengage at the earliest opportunity." The director looked at Panacea. "Panacea, I would like to thank you for coming today and sharing what you know, Wards, you are dismissed."

Panacea left with the Wards, although Aegis stayed behind, having something to talk to the director about. As Panacea began to leave the building, Gallant caught up with her.

"How's Vicky," he asked?

"I managed to heal her injuries, but… she wanted to fight Empress again, to pay her back. It took me ten minutes to make her realize how close she was to dying. After that, and after Mom tore into her about how reckless she was… It'll be a while before Glory Girl goes patrolling again. Or until you get another date."

Gallant didn't react Panacea's last line. "And how are you?"

"I'm fine." A lie, Panacea was more shaken up than Vicky was. What she'd seen had terrified her and confused her and, and most messed up of all, part of her… part of her wanted to see inside Empress again. But the world had little time for Panacea's problems. "I need to go, I'm late for my rounds at the hospital."

Panacea left without waiting for Gallant's response.

*break*

Max Anders was frustrated. When Lung had failed to respond to the Empire's probes, Anders grew bold and sent a larger probe, 20 men led by Hookwolf and Alabaster, with Victor following behind, playing sniper in case Oni Lee arrived. Vicktor had been forced to disengage, however after Lung interfered. It wasn't until Hookwolf returned that Anders got the full story.

The problem began, Hookwolf had said upon his return, when the probe came to one of Lung's brothels. One of the newer recruits got trigger happy and gunned down one of the pimps. This led to a firefight with the Asian's security. The probe had managed to kill everyone, but they had lost both the man who had fired the first shot and another young recruit.

Hookwolf had said that he'd began a retreat, but that someone in the brothel had gotten a call out. Halfway threw their way back when a member of Lung's gang threw some kind of device at the retreating probe. It had flashed and Alabaster and five other men were turned to glass. Alabaster didn't change back, and that's when the Lung had charged the group.

Hookwolf had nearly complained when he had said that Lung had already been covered in scales. The Asian leader had charged and smashed Alabaster and the other glassed men, before exploding in flame and killing or driving off the remaining men. Lung had been angry, Hookwolf had said, and had asked why the Empire had entered his territory and killed his men. He had asked if they thought he was weak because he did not kill the new girl, who he had called a young dragon. He'd said that he'd spared the girl because he wanted to see how she would grow, and that he considered her more worthy a foe than Kaiser, and had asked that Hookwolf pass the message along when he was done with him.

Then Lung had attacked Hookwolf. Hookwolf had commented that Lung had grown faster than he'd ever seen, sprouting wings in minutes. He'd expressed both shame and anger when he described how one sided the fight had been, and how Lung had toyed with him and forced him to go where Lung had wanted him to go. He'd been seething when he had reported that, once Lung had driven him to Bastion's fortifications, and the Protectorate became involved, Lung had simply motioned for Hookwolf to leave while he personally fought the protectorate interlopers himself.

Anders hadn't been mad at Hookwolf. He was angry with the foolish recruit who started the mess, and with the people who deserted and had yet to turn up, but most of all he was frustrated. He'd inherited the Empire 88 from his father. The Empire had been in the city far longer than Lung and his pan-asian thugs. The Empire was the most powerful Gang in the city. Did that mean nothing to the dragon? Did Lung think this was a game? Did he seriously think that a young girl was more worthy a foe than Anders himself was?

Anders sighed. He was home now. He'd heard that the Wards had suffered an embarrassing defeat earlier. Perhaps there would be a story about it on the news, and he could have a good laugh at the expense of the PRT's child soldiers. That would lighten his mood.

He turned on his television just in time to catch the end of a report on the incident in question.

 _"Now, while 'Lilith,' or 'Empress' as she prefers to be called,"_ said the reporter, _"was seen fighting the Wards quite savagely, the hostages in the bank paint a different picture."_

 _"It was scary at first, those kids coming in and yelling, taking us prisoner and damn those dogs,"_ began one hostage. _"But then Panacea-er, should it be miss Dallon since she was out of costume? She tried something or other on Empress, it didn't work, and she flipped the *beep* out. Empress started freaking out and begged Panacea not to have a heart attack"_

 _"The girl was clearly driven to her_ wits _end," said another. "Even then it was clear that she didn't want to hurt anyone."_

 _"I threw up when she talked about how she got her powers."_

 _"The Capes in this town should be ashamed of themselves, hunting a girl like an animal because of a bad day."_

 _"A good lawyer could get her off-and get her millions."_

 _"I was looking out the window, and I saw that video the other night. If she's telling the truth that the Parahuman Response Team *bleep* up. She could have been a hero."_

Anders turned his television off. That was not the story he'd expected. The damn girl… She wasn't even a real villain. The girl who Lung thought a greater threat than Empire Eighty-Eight was just a scared child! A scared child with the audacity to call herself an empress in his city!

The path was clear. Max Anders needed to prove that he was still a force to be reckoned with. That Kaiser was still to be respected, before Lung's attitude spread. He'd start by convincing the monstrous girl to take a more appropriate name. Anders would need to do some research, however. Victor kept an eye on the media. He'd be able to find information on this, this child.

*break*

Coil was beginning to worry. It'd been hours since, in one timeline, he gave the order for his placed mercenary to abduct Dinah Alcott. In both timelines the Undersiders had, discounting a minor hiccup, completed their mission. True, they hadn't gotten as much money as he'd have hoped, and Empress had more than demonstrated her value but, but they'd more than provided the distraction he'd sent them out to create. Lung's battle with Hookwolf happening concurrently was nothing more than a stroke of luck on his part. However...

His fellow Ellisburg survivor's declaration of Empress's instability wasn't far from the truth. The girl had a temper and a trigger that set it off. She'd refuse to harm civilians and hated seeing her loved ones in danger. He could use that, but it would be risky. It'd require more time to plan out, he'd have to use a timeline to experiment, but he could use that.

Still, he should have heard back from his mercenary by now and-his thoughts were interrupted by a text. One he received only in the timeline where he gave the order. He checked it, recognizing the number as one of his mercenaries who had been on security detail.

Bastion is here. Cops assisting, security system out.

Coil sighed to himself and collapsed the timeline. It seems he'd have to acquire the Alcott girl some other time.

It was obvious what had happened, really. Bastion and his men had been assisting the police. He must have been near by when his mercenary made the grab, stopped it ,and captured the mercenary. The hired gun broke under interrogation and spilled the location of his base.

Bastion could be a threat again, later. He'd need to be neutralized… But it would have to be done carefully. It was patently obvious that he was Danny Hebert, the father of Taylor Hebert, Empress. Simply killing the man would set her off… Perhaps he could use her to neutralize him, while using him to keep her in line? Something to look into. For now, he needed to plan, to maneuver, because he needed Dinah Alcott's power if his plans were to proceed.

*Break*

Leet asked, "Maybe we could dress up like the Third Street Saints and shoot up an E88 base?"

"Nah," Uber replied. We did GTA a few episodes back. We don't want to do something too similar too soon."

"Oh, come on Uber."

"I know, I know. Once you get past the first game they're really different animals, but to the casual gamer there's not a major difference."

"Well," Leet began, "does it absolutely have to be a crime?"

"What do you mean, Leet?"

"It's just… We don't make that much from donations and ads on the sight and we get like, one successful heist a year? We've made more doing legitimate work for the boss in the last few months than we do in a year."

"I can see your point," Uber replied to his best friend.

"And I've been thinking: Earlier today, when we were out with the raiders." Leet cleared his throat. "I was just there, in the face concealing uniform, walking a beat with a street cop, and I just happen to stop a purse snatcher. The woman thanked me. It just, it wasn't that big a deal but it felt nice."

"Wait… I see where you're going with this." Uber looked at his friend quizzically. "Are you saying you want to go legit?"

"Why not? I mean," Leet began, "we already have. We're working for a hero and we haven't commited a crime in months. Why not make it official?" Leet laughed. "I mean, the show was never about crime. It's about the games and their right to be recognized as art!"

Uber laughed with his friend. "Yeah, I see you. Sure, why not!?"

The two friends were up half the night talking over just how to go about going into legitimate work.


	16. Furor 301

**Furor 3.01**

"Does the name 'Nick' mean anything to you?"

Alec replied to my query with a dismissive "nope."

Ever since I'd managed to… Let's go with 'recover,' from the bank job, I'd been thinking about what I'd learned while beating down on Glory Girl. I could read minds… but apparently only when I wasn't trying.

"You ready to give up yet?"

'No," I responded. "I swear to God I read her mind."

"Yeah, okay, good for you." Alec was less than sincere. I think. "But why do you have to practice on me?"

"Because," I said, "Brian and Lisa don't live here and Rachel's out walking her dogs."

"Okay," Alec accepted, "But do you seriously want to see in my head?"

I thought for a minute… Oh crap. Alec's emotions were all scary, why would… Why didn't I think… Ugh, aren't psychic people supposed to be smart?

Alec must have noticed a change in my expression, because he flashed me what I'm pretty sure was a fake smile. "Exactly. Besides," he continued, "I've got things I really don't want people to know, so if you could just stop."

"Oh. I'm sorry, I..." What could I say? That I got caught up in being able to actually read minds and forgot to ask first? That- "Rachel's back."

"Cool. You gonna go talk to her?" I nodded, "Tell her I said hi."

I left Alec's apartment in time to see Rachel heading down the hall, towards the basement door.

"Hey," I greeted. "Alec says hi."

Rachel gave a noncommittal grunt. I've managed to put together that that means hello. I think. Rachel's emotions have been more confusing to read than normal since the Bank.

I walked down into the basement with her, mostly since I had to go through it to get to my room. Oh god I was so bored. I didn't want to go bac up and hang with Alec… I don't know if he was upset, or if he even could get upset, but… I could hangout with Rachel for a bit… If she'd put up with me. I've noticed that sometimes she's fine hanging out with the others and sometimes she gets annoyed and wanders off to do her own thing. We've really only hung out just the two of us the one time and-I felt a dog brushing up against my leg. I turned to see Judas, and I reached down to pat him on the head. Rachel's dogs have been really friendly ever since…

"So, how was.. Walking, Rachel?"

Rachel responded with a shrug. I… The hatchery needed more time, and I couldn't build anything else or have any real fun until that got done. Well, I could have gotten to work on… I shuddered, that's not something I want to work on yet.

So, yeah. Boredom. Unless somebody else comes down the stairs with… Speak of the devil, a fourth person had entered the building, heading this way. Normal emotions, no hostility, so either Brian or Lisa. I could feel excitement or anticipation… They had something they wanted to share…

I turned back to the door just in time to see Lisa walking in with a store bag at her side.

"Taylor," she said, "We're going out today."

"...What?"

"I hacked the PRT ENE mainframe," she replied. "It's no big deal, I do it all the time. They, the white hats, have changed their stance on you."

Oh god, now what? "Let me guess, S-class threat with a kill order?"

"No, but I can understand why you'd think that." Lisa winked at me. "You're listed as an A-class threat with threat ratings of 'Brute 7, Mover 3, Striker 3, Shaker 8, Thinker 7. Possible Trump.', and their official policy on you is to leave you alone unless you start it."

"Leave me alone unless..." It's a trap. It's got to be a trap, it's-

"I'm pretty sure that it's not a trap, Taylor." How did she- "I told you when we met, pretending to be psychic is my thing." Lisa gave what I've come to recognise as her characteristic smile. "I'm good at it."

"...You know, Lisa. That can get annoying really fast…" I thought for a moment, focussing on her and trying to find a name. She started it, turnabout is fair play.. "Does the name James mean anything to you?"

Lisa gasped and… She was faking. "Taylor," she said in the hammiest tone imaginable "how did you possible find out about by dear uncle James, who was shot dead by Marquis himself when I was but a young girl?"

"...Kind of overdoing it, Lisa."

"Don't play this game with me, Taylor. I've been at it longer than you have."

Then the two of us both burst out laughing, for like, half a minute, while Rachel just ignored us and fed her dogs.

"Seriously though," I asked Lisa, "what do you mean?"

"Basically, Taylor… Did you see the News the night of the robbery?" I shook my head no. "Well, a lot of the hostages believed your story." Lisa set down her bag and started stretching her neck. "When the news covered our robbery, those hostages told the news what you told them, and about how you acted in the bank..." Lisa smiled again "particularly the bit about how you put yourself at disadvantage to keep the fight that the 'heroes' started away from the civilians… Well, apparently the local news decided that 'Innocent girl driven to villainy by unjust persecution' would get more ratings than 'psycho cape beats hero half to death.' It's a new take on the narrative, after all."

I blinked. "And this means?"

"It means that a good chunk of the city is on your side," Lisa answered. "That, coupled with the complete thrashing you gave Glory Girl and the Wards the other day-Seriously, the threat ratings that they gave you are insane, and well, the PRT doesn't want to antagonize you. They're not sure that they have someone who can beat you, and they know that trying and failing will just make you stronger. On top of that," Lisa continued, "enough people belive Best case scenario it makes them look bad, worst case you beat the shit out of one of their guys."

That made sense, I guess and… Wait, did that mean-

"It means," Lisa continued, getting into my head again, "that if we as a group were to rob another bank or crash a fundraiser, the White Hats would be all over us. But, if you're just walking down the street minding your own business, they'll leave you alone."

I swallowed. "You mean..."

"It means you should be able to go outside during the day without too much trouble… I mean, some people might run and scream and I can't fully account for New Wave, but I don't think we'll have too many problems." "So," Lisa finished with a big grin, "you and I are going out."

I blinked. "But… Won't people figure that something's up when Empress is seen around town hanging out with a blonde girl? I mean, it's gonna be pretty obvious that the blonde hanging out with one of the Undersiders is Tattletale."

"Of course it will," Lisa replied. "Because Tattletale will be in full costume."

…"What?"

"I'll be in costume. Well, and a jacket to make it look casual. I picked you up some casual clothes I think you'll like, too." She gestured to the bag. "They won't fuck with me while I'm with you, and well, two villains acting like normal teens? Refuge in audacity does the rest."

"Okay… Yeah, let's do it!"

Lisa smiled and handed me the bag. "I think you'll like what I picked out for you."

"Can I come?"

Lisa didn't jump when we heard the new voice. She turned to Rachel with an inquisitive look on her face, and I could feel confusion coming from her, like this was out of character for Rachel.

"You, you want to come with us?" Lisa asked, a crack in her all-knowing facade.?"

"Yeah," Rachel replied as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "That's why I asked. Can I come?"

Lisa seemed to feel confused for a bit, and then looked to me, and back to Rachel, and then judging from her emotions something clicked for her. "Of course you can, Rachel. We'll make it a girls day out. I need to go get changed. Taylor," she turned to me, "go try on our new clothes. We'll all meet in the hallway in about ten minutes?"

Rachel and I both nodded, and I turned to go down to my room. Then I stopped.

"Wait, I said, "Rachel lost her mask back at the bank. Ist that going to complicate things?"

Rachel scoffed, "I'm like you. They already know my name and face."

I blinked, "Okay then."

Lisa turned and added, "Yeah, she's a fugitive. She just doesn't give a fuck." Rachel nodded proudly at Lisa's declaration and, my latest worry soothed, I began again to head down to my room. This might be fun. And if Lisa was right, then maybe I could visit Dad

 **Long Live Empress Taylor**

It'd been two days since the Bank robbery, and I'd been called in to speak with Mayor Christner. I knew what it was about. Taylor had robbed a bank. There was no way that he could help me with Taylor anymore. Now that she's actually done something wrong, helping her would look bad. Mayor Christner's a politician. Anything that makes him look bad is something that risks his chances at re-election. I sighed as I was let into his office.

Mayor Christner got up to greet me, offering his hand, which I took half heartedly.

"Are you alright, Mr. Hebert?" he asked. "You seem..." He didn't seem to know how to finish the question.

"Let's just cut to the chase, Mr. Mayor."

"Ahh. If you don't want to talk about t then first I'd like to thank you and 'Bastion' again for your help over the last few days. Come, sit." The Mayor gestured to the Chair in front of his desk as he took his own seat once again. Once I'd sat down he continued. "And now down to business. I've received requests, from Boston, New York, Chicago, and from Chief-Director Rebecca-Costa Brown of the PRT. They've all heard about the Tinker providing technology to Brockton Bay PD, and they'd like to get into contact with you. I just figured it would be courteous to let you know, rather than let you be blindsided when one of them figures out how to contact your directly."

That was not at all what I was expecting. Th-at was good news. Well, I'm not so sure about letting the PRT get a hold of my tech, but more markets meant more income. It'd be awhile before production got to the point where I could sell to four cities, but more income means more funding, and more funding means more research-better tech, which then means… I'm getting ahead of myself.

"But, Mr. Mayor, what about Taylor?"

He raised an eyebrow, "What about her?"

"She, she robbed a bank!" This was so surreal. "Are you still going to help after that."

Mayor Christner blinked, and responded flatly: "yes."

"Why?"

Mayor Christner stood up from his desk again, and motioned for me to do the same. As I complied, he led me to his office window, looking out into the city. "What do you see out there, Mr. Hebert?"

I answered "a city on the decline."

"A diplomatic answer, Mr. Hebert." The mayor took a deep breath. "I see a festering cesspit." I turned to look at him, and he must have been able to tell what I wanted to ask from my expression, because he continued. "I respect you too much to mince words, Mr. Hebert. Brockton Bay has been "on the decline" for a long, long, long time. You know this. The PRT and the Protectorate… There are good, hardworking people in those organizations and they try so hard, but all they've managed to do is barely maintain the status quo-If I didn't know better, I'd think that all of the Heroes and villains in this city were just playing a big game." Mayor Christner began walking back to his desk. "You, within mere months of getting powers, near completely wiped out one of the gangs in this city-and no one has risen up to take their place yet. You changed the city, in some small way, for the better. That's not including what some of our boys in blue being seen with your shiney new technology has done for public relations, or the effects that seeing Parahumans working with normal cops had on the populous."

I didn't know what to say, so I didn't speak. After a moment of silence, the Mayor continued. "All things considered, what your little girl did at the bank? It wasn't quite that bad. The Stansfields, that is to say, a very wealthy family, has donated the money needed to repair the wall, and do you have any clue what the insurance is like in a cape city? Your daughter did very little permanent damage. Continuing to back her is risky, yes, but not that risky. One bank robbery is more than a fair price to pay for the help you've given this city."

I breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you."

"Now, I'm not saying that this doesn't cause us some problems," the Mayor began, "bank robbery isn't something that can just be hand waved away like stealing food to live, or resisting an unjust arrest, but as long as she doesn't kill anyone or, I don't know, take over the city with an army of monsters, then it shouldn't be too hard to get her home to you, assuming that the investigation goes well." He smiled at me, "and from what I've heard, a few kids from Winslow have started talking to the investigators since thursday. So, short of her committing cold blooded murder or treason, the worst case scenario will simply mean I'll have to call either my friend in the DA's office or my friend in the governor's office."

"Again, Thank you Mayor Chrisner."

"Think nothing of it, Mr. Hebert. So, how goes the production of your technology?"

"I've managed to train a few people to help me build, but mass production will have to wait until I have enough spare funds to build facilities for it."

And after a short exchange of pleasantries, I left the Mayor's office, feeling better than I have in days.


	17. Furor 302

**Furor 3.02**

The Fugly Bob's Challenger was a massive meal. An extra large three segmented toasted and buttered sesame seed bun housed three foot wide all beef patties, three slices each of cheddar, Colby jack, and Swiss cheese, ketchup, mustard, mayo, relish, barbecue sauce, two kinds of bacon, fried onions, red onions, lettuce, tomato, pickles, mushrooms, and some of the secret sauce that goes on the hideous bob. It is sliced into six manageable portions, each the size of a normal sandwich, and comes served with an extra large orders of fries, a medium order of onion rings, an extra large soda, and a large milkshake. It's blatantly impossible to finish. Fugly Bob's really uses it more for the spectacle than a fair challenge. Drunk people, stupid people, and crazy people kept trying it and kept paying out when they failed.

I smiled at the terrified waiter/master of ceremonies who was setting the dish and it's sides in front of me. It was actually a bit funny in a twisted kind of way. The man and three of his coworkers had drawn straws behind the counter over which of them would serve us.

"Y-yes, well," The man began, "The rules are simple, if you finish the Challenger in one sitting, it's free. There's no time limit, but if you fail to finish within business hours, you forfeit. Should you be caught sharing so much as a single fry, your forfeit. Should you leave the restaurant under any circumstances, you forfeit. Should you forfeit, or-or otherwise fail to finish the Challenger, you must pay the full price." With that said, he quickly left the dining back to wherever the staff goes.

"Empress," Tattletale said hesitantly, "are you sure you want to eat that thing?"

"Tattletale," I answered, "do you have any idea how long it's been since I've eaten something that didn't come out of the snack aisle of a convenience store? If I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna over do it." I punctuate that sentence with a bite of overloaded burger, savoring the mix of savory flavors and spices.

Every so often I'd get hints of morbid curiosity or fear or feelings like that from the other people in the restaurant. I'd been getting feelings like that all afternoon, but at least people had stopped screaming and running away by the time we got here. Yeah, I didn't want to scare anybody, but it really wasn't my fault that the so called heroes went on the news and branded me a violent lunatic. Honestly, I know that villains are scary but we were just three girls and a dog. Still, I figured that if today went well, there'd be fewer scared people later. I took another bite of the colossal burger, hoping that acting normal would set them at ease. That was why I had a tank top and shorts on. That's why Tattletale had a jacket on over her costume, and that's why Bitch only brought the one dog.

Tattletale had been polite, and waited to start on her plain cheeseburger until the challenger had been finished and brought out to me. Bitch had scarfed down half of her bacon cheeseburger within minutes of getting to the table, feeding the other half to Angelica, who had been sitting under the table

"So," Tattletale said after taking her first bite, "how are you liking the clothes I picked out for you, Empress?"

I looked down at the backless tank top he'd gotten me. "They're not the kind of thing I used to wear, But I like them, thanks." I smiled at her, and then popped an onion ring into my mouth.

Tattletale smiled back, "good, I'm glad." She ate a fry and then continued, "so, any idea what you want to do for our next job?"

Seriously? This was supposed to be a normal day out. I could feel some of our eavesdroppers startle a bit at her blunt question and… she winked at me, what-oh. I see her game.

"Nothing like robbing a bank," I answered, playing along, "too much frustration, not enough targets for the frustration. Why can't we steal from Empire Eighty-Eight or the Azn Bad Boyz? I wouldn't feel bad about taking their money."

"Because Empress, if we only fought villains, then we'd be heroes," Tattletale answered as though though the answer was obvious.

"So? You two and the others have been great friends in the time I've known you," I replied, "but I never wanted to be a villain in the first place." I took a sip from my soda before I continued, "if it wasn't suddenly illegal to have a panic attack after your trigger? I'd probably be a hero right now."

"Aww," Tattletale says, feigning some kind of disappointed sounding emotion, "but you make such a good villain."

"I'll take that as a complement," I said genuinely, "but again it wasn't like I had a choice." I stuffed a few fries in my mouth, chewed, and swallowed. "Besides, we could probably do a better job than the actual heroes now that I think about it."

"Hmm, I can see where you're going with that." Tattletale replied, "but I don't much see the point."

I shrugged in time for Bitch to say with a too wide smile, "I'm always up for fucking up the Empire." I gave the redhead a friendly smile, though I suspect that she wasn't in on the blonde's plan.

Some people, not a lot, but some people who were in here with us were less scared, or at least felt that way. Judging from the clicks or occasional flashes of lights I'd noticed, people were taking pictures. Hopefully this would make more people belive my side of the story and not the lies the PRT were saying about me.

Neither Tattletale nor Bitch seemed to have anything else to say, so I put all of my focus on devouring the mountain of food sitting before me.

I not too long later, I began to notice the morbid curiosity in the other patrons of Fugly Bob's had begun to grow even as their fear decreased, and was joined by confusion and... excitement? It was then that I realized that Tattletale and Bitch were among those emanating those emotions.

I turned and saw not only the crowd around us but the staff and my two friends staring at me. "What," I asked.

My blonde teammate pointed to the empty Soda cups, half drank milkshake, and third of a giant burger sitting in front of me. "Where did it go?"

I blinked. "I ate it," I said before taking another bite of the colossal sandwich.

Tattletale responded by poking me in the belly, then placing her hands around my midsection, as though trying to measure it.

"And where did it go after you ate it," she asked? She was practically radiating confusion at this point, and a little bit of fear. What did she have to be afraid of?

"Presumably my stomach," I deadpanned in reply.

"T-Empress," Tattletale began, "there is no way in hell that there is enough room in your stomach for that amount of food in that amount of time. It… Either your stomach acid is fluorine based," she continued, "or you're bigger on the inside than you are on the outside."

"And that sounds cool," I said, "but unless you're telling me that being able to eat more than I should be able to in one sitting also means I can eat as much of whatever I want without gaining weight, I don't see how it's relevant."

"I don't think that… son of a bitch."

I smiled, thinking of how much I was starting to love my powers, just in time for Bitch to perk up at Tattletale's statement. I laughed, before setting to finish doing the impossible.

Someone actually clapped when the last morsel disappeared down my throat. I turned to see a girl that I think I recognized from Winslow in the corner clapping. A couple of people joined her, but other people looked at the clappers like they were crazy. Well, at least I couldn't feel fear from anyone anymore, so I'll take it.

Fugly Bob's, being a fast food chain, you usually paid upfront, the Challenger being the exception, so we all just got up from our booth and started heading towards the door. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a dark skinned girl taking out her phone to snap a picture of Bitch and Angelica.

A man came out from the back room, and began heading our way, but Tattletale intercepted, walking over to him.

People were staring again. No one seemed scared, but without a mountain of food to devour, I had nothing to distract me from the many, many ways this could go wrong.

It was then that I noticed that there were a pair of PRT Agents in full armor and equipment standing at the main doorway, looking right at me. I stepped back, just a bit. I-Lisa had said they wouldn't do anything if we didn't do anything.

Bitch noticed them them just after I did. She whistled, prompting Angelica to snarl at the agents, and then took a stance and clenched her fists, clearly expecting a fight. I took a deep breath and after exhaling, I tried to take my most confident pose, but I faltered when people noticed that the PRT were here and moved to the far walls in fear, again, clearly expecting a fight to break out.

My fears, were assuaged when Tattletale returned to us. She simply smiled and walked right up to the PRT officers and said to them, "Gentlemen, I hope you realize that you're blocking the door."

The officers didn't respond, and while I couldn't see Tattletale's face, I could sense her growing more smug.

"Really now, my friends and I aren't starting anything," she said, "which means if any violence were to breakout, it would have to be because you started shit..." I could feel a few emotional shifts in the bystanders at her words, "and really? Right now we're just a couple of girls having a day out. The PRT starting violence around civilians… with a restaurant half full of witnesses? One hell of a PR nightmare, no?" She laughed. "So, why don't you stop blocking the door. It's rude."

The two agents looked to each other, then backed away. Tattletale motioned for us to come over to her, so I did, with Bitch and her dog following after.


	18. furor 303

**Furor 3.03**

Paperwork was surely the bane of all who dealt with it, even for people like me who'd spent most of their lives doing it.. That was the downside of being a cape. Whenever you leave to do cape stuff, the crap from your day job builds up. Half the union, myself included, took off for two days because Mayor Christner called a favor, so... Learning that Mayor Christner would still be helping with Taylor helped raise my spirits and get me through it all, but even then making sure that forms were filled out correctly and signing them for hours on end… well, it was boring.

I was interrupted from my musings on the banality of paperwork by a tone from my computer, telling me that I was getting a video call. Probably from Dragon, she was the only one who contacted me this way, and a quick check proved that to be the case. I took a moment to make sure that my camera and mic were connected and answered.

"Hello, Mr. Hebert," said the image of Dragon on my screen. "How are you doing this afternoon?"

"Better than I was doing this morning," I answered, "but still not so good."

"Still worried about your daughter?," Dragon asked sympathetically.

"Among other things, yes." I answered.

"I've seen the news report on her… altercation with the Wards the other day," Dragon said in a hesitant manner, "it seems that the local media is on her side."

I gave a small smile. "And that helps, but until the people of this city and the PRT are on her side..."

"I feel for you, Mr. Hebert," Dragon continued, "and I know your local protectorate and PRT. Armsmaster and Director Piggot are stubborn, but they ultimately both want justice to prevail." The image on the screen smiled at me in turn. "If your daughter really is innocent, then as soon as the evidence of her innocence turns up, they'll do the right thing."

"If you say so." changing the subject, I asked "so to what occasion do I owe this call?"

The woman sitting in my browser window looked down, as though ashamed of herself for getting off topic. "I've called about your Tinker-Tech, Mr. Hebert, and what you're doing with it."

I raised an eyebrow, "Oh?"

"Yes… Can I let you in on a little secret, Mr. Hebert?" I nodded and she continued, "I'm not a Tinker by the strict definition of the term. I claim to be a specialist in replicating and combing Tinker-Tech, but by the strict mechanism of how my powers work, I'm more accurately a Thinker." The image on my screen cleared her throat, "my actual power let's me see what's missing out of Tinker-Tech."

I blinked. "You've lost me."

"Then let me explain," the woman on the other end of the videochat replied, "what we define as Tinker-Tech is advanced technology, far beyond that of normal human science, created by parahumans with a power that grants them advanced understanding of the sciences. However, there's always something missing. I've often studied laser weapons and found technology for new lenses, or new light bulbs or the like, but no viable power source, or a firing mechanism that was missing key pieces." To be honest, that was fascinating. I suddenly remembered how I'd overtime managed to halve the carbon emissions on my truck without changing the gas mileage. "The going theory is that, in addition to providing such advanced scientific knowledge, a Tinker's power somehow affects reality or probability to compensate for such gaps, and that this is part of the reason why most non-Tinkers can't replicate Tinker Technology. My Power let's me understand what's missing and compensate for it."

"That's very interesting Dragon," I began, "but what exactly does it have to do with my own technology?"

"I've examined the blueprints and samples you've sent in for approval quite intensively," Dragon began, "and while some of your technology, like your communicator, follows these norms… Most of it does not. The Gauss rifle you sent in, the armored construction suits, the… tank? I didn't notice it at first, but most of what you make isn't Tinker-Tech. It's just tech."

I'd sort of figured all of that, from the descriptions of Terran-Technology from dream discussions with Jim… Or his copy. I decided to play dumb. "And?"

"D-do you not realize just how significant that is, Mr. Hebert!?"

"Apparently not," I deadpanned, "would you care to explain?"

"Quite simply," began the woman projected on my monitor, "it means that your technology can be replicated by non-Tinkers." I was aware of this, and I nodded to show that. "It also means that by studying your technology, it might be possible for non-Tinkers to learn how to replicate other tinker-tech. With your help, Mr. Hebert, it becomes possible to revolutionize the world."

"And that's why you called." I said it as a statement, not a question, in an even tone. I could see the significance, but at the same time I was expecting some kind of catch.

"It is," Dragon replied. "After consulting other members of the Guild, and various PRT and Protectorate Tinkers, I've compiled a list of scientists and engineers who I'd like you, if you're willing, to teach about your technology."

"I'm not so sure I'm willing to do that," I answered. To be honest, I wasn't. Terran-Tech was mostly war machines, and to be honest I'm not even sure if what Dragon was saying was right.

"Well, of course you would get the final say on who does or does not get to learn about your technology," Dragon hastily added, and admittedly I found myself feeling more agreeable to the idea after that, "and that brings me to the other reason I called you."

"I'm listening."

"I understand that you've been selling your technology to your city's emergency response teams and public transportation sectors. I also understand that other cities and the main branch of the PRT have requested to make similar deals."

"This is correct." I idly wondered if Dragon somehow had access to the computers of other city government's or the PRT.

"I've been requested to approach you about a licensing deal," Dragon adjusted herself in her seat on her end, "I don't think it's a coincidence that I was asked just as you were starting to get requests of your own."

"I don't think it's very likely either. What do you mean by a licensing deal?" I had a vague idea what she meant. I'm no fool, she wants to buy the right to manufacture and sell my technology, but I want specifics. Which of my creations? And for what purpose?

"I would license rights to your technology, replicate and produce it, and sell it to cities and organizations," Dragon answered to the point, "not all of it, just what you yourself have sold or are planning to sell to city governments."

"How much… control, would I have," I asked, "over which cities and organizations received my tech?"

"You would have the final say. I can easily understand not wanting your technology to fall into wrong hands," Dragon continued. "Furthermore, the contracts would be open to renegotiation, so if a city or organization abused your technology, we could stop supplying them."

"What about… Selling here?"

"Nothing I produce will touch the Bay. I'll leave your hometown's distribution in your hands to be done as your current agreement dictates."

"And if I manage to begin mass production on my own?"

"As I've said," Dragon answered, "you would have final say on any city or organization I'd sell your technology to. If a market opened up that you'd prefer to handle personally, it would be as simple as telling me so."

"And the local PRT gets nothing?" It was petty of me, perhaps, but they'd already tried to bribe me with my daughter's safety. Turnabout was fair play, and knowing that they wouldn't get any of my tech might make the locals take my claims of Taylor's innocence more seriously.

"...That would have to be specifically negotiated with Chief-Director Costa-Brown," Dragon answered hesitantly. I'm not sure what answer I was expecting, but…

"And how would the profits from the sales be split?"

"I personally don't care about the money," Dragon replied, "but the Guild could always use more funding… I'm thinking 65-35 in your favor?"

I blinked. "Most people would try for more." Even if she personally didn't care about the money, she'd just said the guild could use the money, and to be honest I was curious about why she was offering me a deal so clearly biased in my favor.

"I'm not most people," Dragon said with a smile, "Police, hospitals, and fire departments having Tinker-Tech vehicles? Tinker Made armor for the police and maybe the PRT? These are the kinds of things that could save lives. That's what's important. I already said I didn't care about the money."

"Alright then… I'd need to see an actual contract first," I said, wanting to be sure there wouldn't be any unpleasant hidden details, "but I'm open to the idea."

"Very good Mr. Hebert. I'll draw up a preliminary contract and send it to you to look over, and then you can get back to me on your thoughts-Oh, and I'll send over the list of scientists too."

"Alright," I answered. "Now, if that's all, I've got paperwork fill out."

"Oh, of course. Goodbye Mr. Hebert."

"Goodbye Dragon."

The famous "Tinker" signed out of the chat after that, so I closed the window. I was just seconds away from getting back to work when I got a call on my communicator.

"Boss," Uber's voice sounded from the device, "I've made contact with your kid."


	19. Furor 304

**Furor 3.04**

"I think that tall guy bumped into me on purpose."

I realized that it was stupid of me to say that just after I'd said it. Of course the man did it on purpose. Everyone else in the market had given us plenty of space, while feeling various levels of fear or uncertainty, or, in the case of people staring, morbid curiosity. The same as it's been since we first left the apartment… though at least people hadn't started running or screaming again. Seriously that had sucked. Anyway, just out of the blue this tall, broad shouldered man walks into me. He'd patted me on the shoulder, said "so sorry," and walked off, and unlike just about everyone else who wasn't Bitch or Tattletale, he hadn't been afraid.

I started checking the pockets of the shorts Lisa gave me. Obviously she couldn't pay with checks or cards without outing herself, so both Tattletale and I had cash on us. Lot's of cash. I wanted to make sure that Bumpy McTall didn't take any of it.

"Empress," Tattletale began, "he didn't take any-Bitch, no!" Bitch had been cracking her knuckles and preparing to chance the man down, though she didn't seem to have given Angelica any kind of signal. As the young woman in the domino mask attempted to restrain the known fugitive, I pulled something from my pocket that hadn't been there a moment ago: a note.

 _Empress, Taylor, or whatever you're going by now_

 _I work for your Dad._

 _He loves you and misses you a lot_

 _He said to tell you to "meet at her grave at midnight tonight."_

"Empress?" Tattletale poked me in the side. "What is it?" even without emotion sensing I could pick up concern in her voice, and for good reason. I… If this was real, this was my first contact with Dad in…

"I-it's a message from my Dad. I, I think that-" Tattletale took my hand and quickly dragged me into a back alley off to the side of the market.

"Okay, start from the top, you think it's a message from your Dad?" Bitch came around the corner into the alley, with a look I'd peg as annoyance on her face and her dog at her heals, just as Tattletale finished speaking.

"What's going on?" she asked, "why are we here?"

"The big guy left a note on her," Tattletale answered.

"Yeah… Says he works for my Dad, um..." I wasn't sure I could talk right now… I was feeling a whole bunch of hard to describe emotions. I just handed the message to Tattletale and let her read it.

When she was finished, turned to me and asked "Her grave? Who's 'her,' Taylor?"

"My Mom," I replied, "it's got to be my Mom… H-he's telling me to meet at Mom's grave."

"Assuming it's not a trap," my blonde friend replied.

Oh shit, I hadn't even considered that. "Do you think that's likely?"

She replied with a blunt "No. If it's a trap, it's an incredibly obvious and clumsily done." she looked up at me, "nobody competent would have done this, and that guy didn't look clumsy so..."

I glared at the blonde. "So, then why did you bring it up?"

"It's not likely, but it's not impossible," my masked friend replied while distinctly not withering under my mighty gaze. "I just, I just want you to know that,whatever you decide to do, that you know what you might be getting into." She smiled, a normal one, not the big toothy grin, "I mean, even if it is a trap, the shoddy work on the bait tells me you've got nothing to worry about."

I felt a cool wetness press up against my leg, and turned my head to see Angelica trying to nuzzle me. I reached down to give her a pat and felt my anger at Lisa calming.

"So, what do you want to do about this?" Lisa asked after a moment.

"I want to go." I had to go. It'd been months since I'd seen my Dad, and if this was real then it meant that he still wanted to see me… even after…

"Well, if you're going to meet up with your Dad tonight," Tattletale began, interrupting my train of thought, "then you're gonna have to get some good clothes!"

I blinked… "Li-Tattletale, the clothes you got for me are nicer than anything I've ever owned."

And they were. At least, they felt like they. I'd never have gone out in a backless tank and shorts before, but Lisa had bought them for me, and… they felt great, and they didn't restrict my movements, like, at all… Granted, it might just be that I'd gotten used to bundling up during my time on the run, but-My train of thought was derailed as my experimental zerg-flies picked up something amiss in my room back at the lair.

Tattletale had been about to reply, but I suddenly cut her "Tattletale, could you call or text Regent and tell him to put the beer back?"

Tattletale blinked behind her mask, clearly taken aback by the sudden change in subject. "Alright then." she wandered over the back end of the alley and took her cell out of a jacket pocket before texting away.

I couldn't feel anything unusual emotion-wise coming from the open end of the alley, so I didn't check it out. Instead I just gave Angelica another pat.

"So, um..." I gestured to the dog's missing eye and ear, "I've been meaning to ask you, Bitch, how did that... Did she like, get in a fight or something, or-"

Bitch cut me off, answering bluntly that "The last people to have her were bastards." Bitch then kneeled down to start petting her dog herself. Nonhuman emotions were still hard to read, but Angelica seemed to be liking the attention.

"Well, it's good you got her away from that." My brutish friend simply grunted in response.

Tattletale came back to us about then. "Well, Regent didn't respond to my text, so..."

"It's okay," I replied, "I'll know if he puts it back or not." I chuckled, "if he doesn't, I'll just have to kick his ass later."

"Okay then..." Tattletale sounded… I'm not sure how to describe it really. "Well, you seem to be feeling better, Empress."

"Yeah." I was, now that I'd had time to get my emotions settled. "So, back to girl's day out." I smiled. Everything had been going well so far, and I was going to meet Dad. This was a good day so far, all things considered, and it was gonna stay good. "But no clothes shopping."

Tattletale deflated a bit as I said that, even as Bitch nodded her agreement. "Why not?" She asked.

"Because you said 'good' clothes," I answered simply, "and that means a fancy boutique, probably on the boardwalk. You know, the place we very deliberately didn't go to?" For very good reason. "I know you mean well, and things have been going well so far, but I'm not gonna rock the boat by going to a place that probably won't service known criminals in the one part of town with armed security." I began rolling my shoulders to release some left over tension from a moment ago. "Maybe, maybe if we do this a few more times, and it keeps going well, and people stop freaking out when they see us then maybe then, but not today."

Tattletale shrugged. "Okay." Seems she wasn't as attached to the idea as…

"Giving up just like that?" I asked suspiciously. "You were so enthusiastic when you brought it up at first."

"What can I say," Tattletale replied with a smile, "you make a compelling argument."

"A compelling argument," I shot back, "that you must have been fully aware of, Sherlock. I don't think clothes shopping was ever on the agenda." I thought back to the emotions I'd felt from Lisa at the time, now that my own emotions weren't boiling away within me. "You were trying to distract me. Give me something else to focus on, other than what I was feeling just a bit ago."

"Guilty as charged," she answered still smiling, "though if I'd known what our little friend was doing I'd have just let that flow it's course."

I really should have realized that before it was happening… Useless ass psychic powers, what god are they if I need to be calm to use them right… No, I was anything but calm when Glory Girl hurt… I shook my head, not wanting to think of that right now. I'd figure out my psychic powers later.

"Okay, clothes shopping's out, and so's the boardwalk in general for obvious reasons… what else can we do?" I didn't quite want to go back yet… I had till midnight to get to the cemetery and it would be at least another day before the hatchery was finished, and I wasn't quite ready to work on… those other things, so staying out with the girl's was best bet for keeping busy.

"There's a guy who sells used and off brand electronics at the far end of the Market," Tattletale answered. "I've never gone to shop, but the word around town is that he doesn't mind… certain kinds of clientele."

"Something to do." Maybe if we were lucky I could find a cheap laptop or something. To be honest, I'd been somewhat curious about what PHO had to say about me, or if anything about me made it onto the big time news.

 **Long Live Empress Taylor**

It was a weird experience, walking out of a darkly lit shop with a pre owned(but wiped clean!) laptop and case in a generic "thanks for buying stuff here" bag held at my side. The laptop hadn't looked that old and had been surprisingly cheap even for a computer, even a used one, which, coupled with how the shopkeep, a middle aged hispanic man calling himself by "Mister Smith" didn't react at all to three super villains walking into his shop... Well, it made me suspect that the computer I'd just bought was either stolen or had been used for something illegal in the recent past.

At least by now the people in the market had gotten used to Tattletale, Bitch, her dog, and I walking out and about. I could only pick up a tiny hint of fear from the crowed in general… though I did pick up a hint of more concentrated emotions, felt more directed at my group in general, from a small group of people a bit further away. I turned to see a group of PRT agents standing about as though they weren't at all out of place in a group of civilians-"move along, nothing to see here, go about your business," and in general doing a poor job of blending in. Military style combat uniforms and armor along with military hardware looking foam weapons don't blend in well in a crowd. They had turned to look at us just as I'd turned to look at them. They seemed more.. Composed than the last batch had been and turned away as soon as they noticed that I'd spotted them… It seems that Tattletale was right.

I let out a breath I hadn't known I'd been holding, and had been about to ask Tattletale and Bitch if there was anything else they wanted to do while we were out when I heard something out in the distance.

"We should have gone to the boardwalk," a familiar voice let out, stopping my hearts.

"Oh come on, the boardwalks shops are nice, but there are just some things you can find here that you can't find there," said another… Oh god no. Not now, not today.

"Like what?" sounded the first voice, confirming my suspicions.

"Clothes that don't cost like,a thousand times what it costs to make?" Why here? Why today? Why now?

"I guess… It's just, the kinds of people you see down here," came the voice of my former best friend. "I'd feel safer if Sophia was with us."

"Where is she anyway?" sounded the voice of Madison Clements, the juvenile "I'm too cute to be guilty" bitch who'd helped my former friend and psychopathic replacement make my life hell before all of this started.

"Apparently her boss caught her slacking off at work and is making her do overtime to make it up," came Emma's voice as the two girl's came into view.

"You know, she's never actually told me what it is she does," said Madison.

"Oh, you know," Emma answered, "some boring retail job she doesn't like to talk abou..."

At first I didn't know why she trailed off, but then the emotions she began radiating hit me like a brick. Hatred. Panic. Guilt and remorse. And an emotion I'd never thought I'd feel from her, one I was all too familiar with: Self loathing. She, she'd spotted me. She was staring in my direction, fixated on me, just as I was fixated on her… I'd wanted to be angry, to hate her, to cast judgement upon her and banish her to some Hell for her sins against me… but the emotions she was feeling… She was afraid of me. She… Did she feel bad about what she'd done? Why did she hate herself so much? I couldn't bring myself to hate her, not after sensing that, and that left me unsure what to feel. This wasn't how I expect any hypothetical encounters with Emma to go, I… I didn't know what to so.

Tattletale put a hand on my shoulder. "Empress, are you..." she then caught who I'd been staring out, and through some apparent use of her power seemed to put two and two together. "Ah. We should go somewhere else now."

I stepped forward, letting her hand slide off me, and, not knowing what else to do but needing to do something, called out "Emma?"

She'd heard me and froze, and with the distance between us half the market turned to stare, the feelings of morbid curiosity springing up from around us again. I could sense a degree of panic coming from Tattletale behind me… "This is bad" came her voice in a kind of... Oh, now my mind readings powers wanted to work? Whatever. I stepped forward again, and suddenly Emma's emotions shifted, all other feelings being replaced with panic and blind fear.

My former best friend, my sister in all but blood until her betrayal, turned and ran faster than I'd ever seen her go, her emotions shifting and making her a comet of fear, shame, and self hatred. I half heartedly reached out for her, but she was long gone, Madison hot on her trail and a whole crowd of people staring either at the retreating girl's or at me.

"Taylor," Tattletale said quickly, my code name forgotten or abandoned in the urgency of the moment, "we need to go." She tugged on my arm for emphasis.

"Okay," I said, my voice empty. I was too… Confused? Upset? There was sort of a sour-sick feeling in my stomach, but I'm not sure how else to describe it… I didn't feel much like protesting, or staying out anymore.

Tattletale led Bitch and I out of the market, nobody, not even the PRT Agents blocked our path. We took a different way than Emma and Madison had fled. Once we were well outside of the Market, Bitch turned to me. "Who was that?"

All I could say was "someone who used to be my friend." She nodded, but for the life of me I couldn't tell what the nod meant. After that, I was kind of I don't know how to describe it. Getting back to the lair would take a while. We had to circle around a bit to make sure to lose anyone who might be tailing us, and then to be extra safe we'd drop down into the storm sewers and take my little short cut. We'd planned it out in advance that way.

I just let my feet carry me on the complicated and spiraling path through the city, moving when I detected my friends moving, stopping when they stopped, all while caught up in a sea of my own turbulent emotions and desperately trying to focus on anything but what just happened.

I was shaken out of autopilot by a sudden stop and the sound of Angelica growling. I came to my senses to the sight of our path-yet another alley open at both ends, blocked by a pair of young men, late teens at most, one of whom, a blonde, looked familiar. They were both dressed in Empire Eighty-Eight's colors, and contrary to their position in our path, they both had their hands raised in defense.

"We're just messengers," said familiar Blondy. "See, we're unarmed." the two young men made a show of turning out their pockets and opening their coats, to show that they had no weapons hidden on themselves.

"Okay," Tattletale began as Bitch signaled for her dog to calm, "what message could Empire Eighty-Eight want to pass along to the Undersiders?"

"Not the Undersiders," said Blondy, "her." He pointed to me in a manner that I suppose he felt was nonthreatening.

"I'm sorry," I replied, my voice dripping with equal parts sarcasm and irritation, "but I'm not interested in joining the National Socialist Party."

Blondy and his friend exchanged looks. "...That, that wasn't the message," Blondy said in reply after an awkward moment of silence.

"Okay then," I said with growing irritation, "out with it." God damn it I just wanted to get back to my hive.

"It's about your name," Blondy answered. "Kaiser doesn't appreciate some girl calling herself an empress here in his empire." Oh God here we go. "Now, he knows that you're new and all, so he's willing to cut you some slack." Well, wasn't that a fresh load of bullshit? "Kaiser has generously promised not to take action against you if you just change your name to something more appropriate… Scales, perhaps? Or maybe go back to that hebe she-demon name you had before?"

I blinked, and then ever so calmly, I told Blondy to "go tell Kaiser that he can go fuck himself."

It was Blondy's turn to blink now, and then he turned to his companion. "Well, we did our job. It's a shame though, that we'll have to tell Kaiser that Locker Girl here doesn't want to play nice."

Locker Girl? Wait that means… That's why the fucker looked familiar, the bastard's a senior at Winslow! After a moment, in which I moved more on instinct than conscious thought, I had Blondy and his buddy held, feet off the ground, backs to a wall, with Blondy's neck in my right hand and his friend's in my left.

"Let me tell you something," I said to the Nazis with fangs bared, "I'm in a real bad mood right now." I was careful with my grip, giving enough to be uncomfortable, even painful, but without enough force to crush their throats or break their necks. I was pissed, but I'm no killer. "Two of the last things I need right now," I continued, "are Kaiser's political posturing, or two Hitler Youth rejects showing up just to piss me off by say… reminding me of the worst day of my life?" Especially when I already had it on the brain... I looked the blonde dumbass in the eye but I was cut off by Bitch speaking up

"Were you the one did it?"

Blondy, radiating panic but lucid enough to know that he was being addressed,only answered by asking "di-did what!?"

"She was shoved in a locker," Bitch said slowly, as though talking to a mentally disabled child. "You called her Locker Girl. Were you the one that did it?" Bitch was… Well, she was almost as pissed as I was, that much was clear.

"No, I swear!" Blondy screamed. My friend didn't seem to believe him.

"Bitch," I said to her, "it wasn't him." Bitch didn't believe him, but she believed me. With that interruption taken care of, I once more looked Blondy in the eye and grinned with bared fangs.

"So anyway," I said to him, "I've changed my mind. Here's what's gonna happen:" I took a deep breath before continuing, "I'm gonna set you down. You're gonna run back to Kaiser, and instead of telling him to fuck himself, you're gonna tell him that if he's got such a big problem with my name," I made sure to smile big and bright for the last line, "then he can kiss my scaly blue ass. Understand?"

The two Neo-Nazis nodded, so I let go of their necks and let them fall to the ground. After a moment, the two young men scrambled to their feet and peeled out of the alley.

"Well," I said once they were gone, "that was cathartic. Let's go home." I made a note to ask Rachel why she was so curious about who it was that shoved me in the locker, or why Lisa was suddenly panicking, later.


	20. Furor Interlude

**Furor Interlude 1**

The last few days had been particularly stressful for Director Piggot. While the media had focused on Empress's claims of unjust persecution driving her to villainy, the simple fact that she'd utterly destroyed the Wards and had, for lack of a better term, mauled Glory Girl had gotten out, and someone had contacted the Youth Guard.

The civilian organization had been on site within hours, and while they had been respectful they did… complicate matters, as their representative, a Mrs. Fowler, had insisted that the Wards not be sent on patrol or given active duties until her own investigation into the incident had been completed. Director Piggot had complied with the request, because at least one thing had to go smoothly this weak, and becuase, well, with the revelations about Empress she'd had bigger fish to fry. Still, it had complicated matters and some of the Wards resented being grounded.

Speaking of Empress, the Director had personally been going over the files on previous encounters between her and the PRT. After Aegis had informed her of Empress's declaration upon seeing Shadow Stalker,the director had pulled the probationary Ward into her office to ask what, exactly, Empress had meant when she'd asked if Shadow Stalker wasn't planning to finish the job.

After quite a bit of resistance, Shadow Stalker had confessed to an unauthorized, unreported, violent encounter with Empress shortly after Empress had fled the first attempt to contain her. The Ward had insisted that she'd merely tried to convince Empress to turn herself in peacefully and that the other Parahuman had attacked first, but considering Shadow Stalker's reluctance to tell this story, Director Piggot was certain that it wasn't the truth. Regardless, between this encounter and Empress's claims, Director Piggot wanted to make absolutely sure that there was nothing else to suggest that Empress had legitimate reason to turn to crime.

Which led to her reading over a transcript of the orders to find and contain her first given after her trigger event and the after action reports for the mission when Mrs. Fowler entered her office.

Mrs. Fowler was what you'd expect from an organization like the youth guard. Middleaged woman, caucasian, clearly had more than one child, practical haircut, and dressed somewhere between business and casual. It was only the lack of a Minnesota accent that kept her from being the stereotypical image of a soccer mom. Looks could be deceiving, however. As the director had been informed on Fowler's arrival, the woman was an Ivy League graduate with a degree in child psychology and had worked as a councilor for a time before beginning work fulltime for the Youth Guard.

"Good afternoon, Director," the woman said, "I hope I'm not coming in at a bad time?"

"No," Director Piggot answer as she placed the documents to the side. "I was just reviewing some things. What do you need?"

"I've finished interviewing the Wards," the other woman said, holding a clipboard, "now I just need to get your take on the incident and a few other details." Director Piggot did not quite like the sound of that, but still beckoned the woman to sit while planning to answer honestly-the Director knew she was likely to be in trouble, lies and cover ups would just make it worse.

"First," Mrs. Fowler began, "it's my understanding that the majority of the Wards are in some vocational program, so I'm not going to ask why they weren't all in school… though you might have someone coming by later to inquire about that." The woman cleared her throat, "So the first thing to ask, really, is why send the Wards to a bank robbery?" Mrs. Fowler waited for response, clipboard at the ready.

The Director sighed. "What you have to understand here, is that this past Thursday had a massive spike in crime, even for this city." The director turned to get the relevant files containing reports given that day. "Circus attempted to rob a jewelry store, Trainwreck, a former member of the Merchants, resurfaced and tried to raid a methadone clinic, there were several armed robberies by people believed to be mercenaries in the employ of Coil," the director hesitated before concluding "not to mention a spike in civilian crime so high that BBPD actually went as far as to call in assistance from an Independant hero and his unpowered sidekicks as reinforcements."

"So what you're saying is that you were drastically understaffed?" Mrs. Fowler didn't seem so understanding in that moment. "I was under the impression that PRT ENE had received reinforcements a few months ago."

"It's true that we requested backup after a… violent incident with the villain that the Wards encountered at the bank," Director Piggot began in response, "with her being one dangerous parahuman threat too many, however the response was… underwhelming."

"How underwhelming?"

"Mouse Protector, Weld, and a dozen agents pulled out of reserve," Piggot answered. "Mouse has been a big help in her time here, but there's only so much Weld is allowed to do, and twelve reserve grunts are basically just meat for the grinder in a city like this."

Mrs. Fowler nodded. "Continue."

The Director obliged. "When we received notification that a group matching the description of the Undersiders had entered the bank and taken people hostage, we felt that it would be a 'safe' encounter for the Wards-the Undersiders have a reputation for fleeing rather than fighting," Piggot explained. "At the time, we didn't think that the A-Class threat, Empress, was affiliated with them but in hindsight there was an incident that should have clued us in."

"Hindsight is a cruel mistress," Mrs. Fowler added helpfully. "Now, it's my understanding that when the Wards realized that Empress was present, they called back in for updated instructions. What was it that you told them?"

"Under normal circumstances, we'd have told the Wards to retreat and immediately sent in the Protectorate, however" the director hesitated for a moment, "Concurrently with the Bank robbery, there was an altercation near the Dockyard between Hookwolf and Lung, with Lung heavily escalated. All Free members of the Protectorate had been deployed to deal with that when the Wards called back. So, I made a judgement call." The director coughed. "I concluded that the A-Class threat currently rampaging through town was more likely to cause harm than the A-class threat bunkered up in a bank in the middle of a robbery. So, the Wards were instructed to stay put, observe the situation, report back if the situation changed, and not engage." The director blinked. "Shortly after this exchange, the Wards called back to inform us that Glory Girl of New Wave had arrived and that her parents, Brandish and Flashbang, were on their way."

"I understand that Panacea of New Wave was among the hostages in the bank," Fowler interrupted, "and that this had something to do with both New Wave's response and the... altercation that led to the Ward's being injured?"

"Correct on all counts," Piggot continued. "From what I've been told, Glory Girl grew impatient, waiting for her parents to arrive while her sister was, potentially, in danger and on her own initiative charged into the building, damaging a wall." As opposed to going in through the door like a normal person, was Piggot's unvoiced thought. "Panacea later told us that, while in the bank, Glory Girl used excessive force in dispatching one of the Undersiders, Hellhound-"

"The serial killer with the monster dogs?" Mrs. Fowler questioned.

"The very same," Piggot answered, "anyway, from what we've been told, Glory Girl used excessive force to dispatch Hellhound, leading Empress to believe that Hellhound had been killed, before insulting Empress. Empress responded by punching Glory Girl through a wall and beating her, sadistically, while claiming that she would kill Glory Girl if Hellhound was dead."

"And that's when the Wards engaged." Mrs. Fowler wasn't asking. She'd know this already, the Director knew, because her Wards wouldn't lie.

"Without calling in to update the situation. I'd only learned of Glory Girl's… impatience after the fact," Piggot said. "Regardless, from the Ward's reports after the fact, Gallant was apparently the first one to engage, out of fear that Empress would kill Glory Girl." Piggot sighed. "The rest of the Wards engaged, not thinking, with the intent of keeping Empress's attention off of Glory Girl. I can't fault them for refusing to abandon an ally and trying to protect her at any cost, even if they were… incredibly foolish in how they did it but." The director sighed "I'm just glad that Empress didn't transfer her rage to the Wards, and that Panacea was present and willing to heal their injuries. If either of those factors hadn't been the case, we'd be burying at least one Ward today."

"Alright," Mrs. Fowler said as she finished filling out something or other on her clipboard, "that's consistent with the Wards' stories. No problems there." She flipped a page on her clipboard. "Now, I've noticed that the media… What can you tell me about this villain, this Empress?"

"Thats… That's a complicated story, Mr. Fowler."

The woman in question nodded. "I've got time. I feel that… The media seems to be awfully concerned with the possibility that Empress could be an innocent victim of persecution and not very concerned with that she's done to the Wards. I feel that knowing why that's the case is important."

The Director sighed. "We… honestly don't know much about Empress's psychological state. Our initial… Empress triggered after spending several hours trapped in a high school locker that had been filled with biological waste that had been left to decay." The Director paused as Mrs. Fowler winced. "She escaped by breaking through the locker door, and then, in a panicked state, attacked and injured a fellow student before fleeing the school. At this point in time, acting under the impression that the girl was panicked and lashing out following her trigger event, we sent out squads in order to find her, talk her down, and if necessary contain her before she could harm herself or another."

"How major a concern was that?"

"Imagine that you're a teenaged girl, lost, scared, alone," Piggot began. "Now imagine that someone tries to mug you, and while trying to defend yourself, you kill them. Not on purpose, but still. How likely are you to be willing to turn yourself in?"

"I want to say that I could think things through rationally," began Mrs. Fowler, "but I know how teenage brains work"

"And that's not even the half of it," Piggot continued. "Now imagine that the mugger was a member of the Merchants, of Empire Eighty-Eight, of the Azn Bad Boyz? The gangs do not take well to parahumans killing their members and would be out for blood. Assuming that they weren't already," Piggot stated, "because all three gangs are known to recruit from Winslow, the school Empress attended, and are thus unlikely to react well to a parahuman rampaging there."

"And even if they weren't," Fowler interjected, "It's my understanding that criminal organizations are always looking for parahumans to recruit, and a runaway fresh off of her trigger event is an easy target."

"Exactly," Said the director. " Quite simply, we needed to find her before something like this happened. However, our attempts to find her before that could happened backfired. A Squad was sent to her house, to ask her father where she might have fled to, and was armed with containment foam just in case she couldn't be talked down and had to be contained by force." Piggot coughed again. "However, Empress arrived during the process. The after action report is sparse on details, but what's clear is that at some point, Empress tried to flee, was foamed, destroyed the foam with some kind of shaker power, and escaped into the city."

"Exactly what you'd sent the squads out to prevent." The Woman from the Youth Guard finished. "Though what's changed? She's far from a scared little girl anymore."

"When we investigated the school, following the trigger… Other than members of the gangs pointing fingers at each other and the popular minority children in the Case of E88, we received quite a consistent story" Piggot sounded for all the world like she no longer believed the story in question. "Empress's civilian identity was said to be a strange, quiet loner who seemed unusually biased against the popular cliques…"

"The stereotype of a school shooter?"

"Exactly," Piggot answered. "At first the consistent story was suspicious, but after several weeks with no one breaking… Around the same time, there were multiple sightings of Empress in conflict with the gangs, and it became known to us that she was stealing narcotics and other controlled substances from the Merchants in these encounters." Piggot grimaced. "Participating in gang fights and stealing drugs are both criminal acts, and when a teenage runaway is stealing narcotics she's either using or dealing. Around the same time, a few… less than productive encounters between her and PRT agents led to us being forced to pursue her as a criminal. We even assigned her a villain name from a list, Lilith, though we've retired the name after she declared her own alias."

"And then," Director Piggot continued, "she tore the arm off of one of our agents during an encounter." The Director paused while the other woman flinched. "After this, we were forced to conclude that Empress was dangerously unstable, warned the public as such, and requested reinforcements in hopes of being able to deal with at least one of the dangerous Parahuman threats in the city…" The director hesitated, "But I may have been wrong to do so."

Mrs. Fowler raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"The reason that the media is covering the possibility that Empress is a victim of unjust prosecution," Piggot began, "is because Empress claimed as such to her captive audience, citing a fear of being killed or sent to the Bird Cage and, for whatever reason, several of them believed her."

"Why?" Mrs. Fowler asked, incredulously. "What possible reason could people have for believing that the person holding them hostage was an innocent victim?"

"I don't know why," the director answered, "but her actions at the Bank were so inconsistent with our psychological profile of her that we had to throw it out and start over." Director Piggot hesitated before adding this next bit, but decided that Mrs. Fowler had probably already known that Shadow Stalker was on punishment detail. "And there's at least one incident, that I've only recently become aware of, where one of our Wards had a violent encounter with Empress shortly after Empress fled her home and failed to report on it.. Since becoming aware of this, I've been personally going over everything we have on Empress, because if there's any chance that any other..."

"...Ahh." Mrs. Fowler laughed bitterly. "Might be a villain you made yourself? Well, you're lucky that that's outside of the scope of my investigation. Now, about this Ward with the unreported encounter?"

"Shadow Stalker is a probationary Ward. Apparently, at some point shortly after Empress fled from home, she went on a solo patrol and encountered Empress, and the encounter turned violent." Director Piggot tapped her fingers on the desk. "Shadow Stalker claims that Empress attacked first, but regardless the fact that such an encounter happened at all… She's already violated the terms of her parole by going out alone. The only reason she's not on her way to juvenile hall as we speak is because I want to give her a chance to prove that she's merely guilty of poor judgement."

Mrs. Fowler filled away a few more things on her clipboard. "Well, that's everything I needed. Between your testimony and the Wards', it seems like this encounter was an extreme freak accident." Fowler laughed for a moment but suddenly stopped. "Just don't let it happen again," she said in a serious tone that clashed with her wide smile. "Some people higher up than me might try and use this for some agenda or another," she said as she stood up, "but my part's done."

Director Piggot was relieved to hear that. "Good afternoon, Mrs. Fowler."

"Good afternoon, Director Piggot." The youth guard woman left,just in time for an agent to enter. Director Piggot silently wondered why, exactly, people kept coming into her office without knocking today.

"Deputy Director Renick said that you personally wanted all files on Empress?" the agent said while holding out a stack of papers. "I've got my Squad's after action reports here, on the Empress sighting mission."

"Thank you, Agent… Wallace, isn't it?" Piggot said and asked.

"Um, yes, Director," answered the agent.

"You were in the Squad first sent to find and contain Empress after her trigger, weren't you?"

"Yes, Director."

"Ah, then you could help me with something," the director said a bit more… menacingly than she perhaps intended. "I was looking over the report from that mission. Could you explain a few things for me?"


	21. Furor 305

Furor **3.05**

I took a deep breath. I had a lot on my mind, after this afternoon, and as it got closer and closer to midnight... Lisa had left, just a little bit after we'd gotten back to the hideout. She'd said something about having to talk with Brian, but she'd seemed a bit panicked for some reason. After Emma, and that note from my Dad I just couldn't do much of anything else social,so I sequestered myself in my room.

I'd tried to keep busy. I'd gotten my laptop set up and even found a few news stories I'd decided to keep up with-in particular I felt the need to do more reading on the Canary trial when I had less on my mind. But, as the afternoon turned to evening my thoughts turned to back to earlier to day and… One thing at a time. I checked the time, 10:30 PM. If I left now, I'd get there a bit early, but it's been awhile since I've visited Mom's grave.

I was still in the shorts and tank Lisa had gotten me, but I'd ditched the sandals. I'd be leaving through the storm sewer and it was just easier to not have to worry about them. Also, I'd kind of gotten used to the feeling of the ground on my feet over the last few days. I went upstairs, to let Rachel and Alec know that I was about to head out.

I didn't have far to go-I found the both of them in the main basement, in Rachel's kennel. Rachel was sitting in a corner just petting and playing with her dogs and Alec was sort of looking at her.

"Hey," I said in greeting, then turned to Alec. "I didn't expect you down here."

He shrugged in response.

"Well, I just came up to tell you guys I'm heading out, so..." That sounded better in my head.

Rachel patted one of her dogs-Judas if I'm not mistaken, and then looked up at me. "Do you, hmm, do you," she coughed, then looked away from me. "Do you want one of us to come with you?"

"No, this is really something I should do on my own." Rachel looked back to me and I smiled, carefully, to not show my teeth, and continued. "But thank you for asking."

With that said, and no one looking like they were going to say anything else, I turned to head back down to my room, and from there the storm sewers. As I got to the bottom of the stairs, I overheard Alec mumble something, then caught the sound of flesh hitting flesh. I shrugged, Alec must have done something to piss off Rachel.

As I walked through the sewers, my thoughts turned back to Dad, and what I might find at the cemetery. I'd robbed a bank and trashed a team of child superheroes… Dad took out the Merchants, would he have found out about the drugs? I hope he didn't get the wrong idea. Would Dad still want me back, if by some miracle I could ever go home again? I mean, he wanted to see me, and Lisa had said that he'd spent the last few months trying to get people to believe I was innocent, but that was before the bank. What if he just wanted me to meet with him so he could tell me off in person? What if it was a trap? Lisa said she didn't think it was likely, but she was wrong about how many Wards would be at the bank so she could be wrong about this, and…

I shook my head. There was no point in dwelling on such things. I couldn't back out now, I had to see this through. I came to a ladder leading up to a manhole. I closed my eyes and felt out with my senses, and when I couldn't feel any emotions near by I climbed up and out into the streets. I was still a bit away from the cemetery, but there wasn't a storm sewer anywhere near it so I don't have much of a choice.

As I walked the rest of the way towards the cemetery, I would occasionally notice people in the streets out late at night-a couple members of the gangs, a couple of prostitutes, and some people who just had really poor judgement. Most people didn't pay me much mind, though a woman I think was a prostitute who saw me ran away, a jolt of fear cutting through her emotions, and at one point I noticed a presence with emotions directed at me with intent from about a dozen or so yards up the street, but when I turned to get a look at the guy they were running away. I shrugged, guessing that it was some thug planning to mug me, who ran when they got a better look at me.

I felt three sets of emotions present when I got to the cemetery, but they were out of my line of sight the whole way to Mom's grave. There was no sign of Dad at the grave, so I just crouched down and sat in front of Mom's tombstone.

I looked at the stone, and read the epitaph for the first time in a good while:

 _Annette Rose Hebert_

 _1969-2008_

 _She taught something precious to each of us._

"It's been awhile," I said to the stone and the open air. "A lot has happened since the last time I visited." I took a deep breath. "I've got powers now. I'm, I'm so strong now and I'm just gonna keep getting stronger. I wish I could tell you I was a hero, but things didn't work out like that. I know you were part of Lustrum's movement, back before it started getting violent, but..." Like I said, Mom had left the movement before it got violent, back when it was just feminists campaigning and protesting for women's' rights. The worst thing Mom had done was get rowdy during a rally. But, even if Mom had been in one of Lustrum's main gangs before she left, she… she wouldn't have done anything like robbing a bank or stealing drugs from the most aggressive dealers in town. That wasn't the kind of person mom was. I sighed. "I've got some new friends now… They're… They're villains… I'm a villain now." I took another breath to calm my nerves. I'd never get this done if I kept hesitating. "I didn't want to be, but something happened and a lot of people think I'm a monster and, and my new friends are some of the first people to treat me like an actual human being in a long time. They seem like good people otherwise, or at least they're good to me, and I guess that's what counts." That sounded weak, even to me, now that I said it out loud. I think I needed to learn more about my new friends.

"I don't know if Dad's been by, but he's a hero now." I felt a fourth emotional presence enter the graveyard. "A Tinker. He took out the Merchants and he's using his tech to fix up the city. I'm actually here to meet him, and-" the emotional presence was heading my way. I could feel anticipation, hope, concern, and love, and-I jumped to my feet and turned to look just as the presence came into view. The man I saw was wearing a trench coat but even from this distance I could clearly make out that it was "Dad!"

I wanted to run up to him and hug him, but I stayed at Mom's grave. I mean, I could feel his emotions, but I couldn't be 100 percent sure how he'd react or what he wanted with this meeting.

As Dad came up to Mom's grave, I noticed that he'd changed, just slightly, since the last time I'd seen him. He looked just a bit more fit, I guess is the best way to describe it, as though he was getting more exercise. I felt a twinge of guilt as I noticed the dark circles around his eyes and that his hair had grayed a bit since I'd last seen him. Was he losing sleep over me?

The first thing Dad did, when he got to me,was to gesture at my face. "I, I see you're not wearing your glasses anymore," he said awkwardly.

I blinked, then felt at my face for frames that weren't there. "Okay," I said after a moment, "that's really something I should have noticed before now." Dad chuckled, just a bit, and I couldn't help but join in.

"Okay," Dad said, "there's one thing we have to get out of the way: You're grounded."

"For robbing the bank?"

"No," Dad answered, "for fighting Lung." He pointed to his hair and I noticed that he was wearing some kind of armor from the gauntlets on his hands. "Do you see this grey?" he asked in a tone all too serious, "most of this from watching you fight him the other night."

I laughed nervously. "So, you're not mad about… you know?"

"I'm not happy that you've joined up with a band of villains," Dad said, "But I can understand why you did it, and besides," he continued, "I'd be a hypocrite if I got mad at you for joining the Undersiders after I hired Uber and Leet."

I blinked again. "What?"

"I needed parahuman assistance," Dad answered in an even tone, "and Uber and Leet were in my price range. Besides, they've more than earned their pay."

"But… they're a joke," I was still incredulous, "and did you see that Grand Theft Auto episode they did?"

"Would you believe that they staged that?" I looked at Dad and he continued. "You hear about them hiring minions, but you never see them in their videos… except you do. Apparently, a lot of Uber and Leet's more extreme stuff is staged."

"Really?"

"Don't get me wrong," Dad continued, "they made it clear what kind of jobs they were willing to do if the price was right back when I first hired them." Dad shuddered. "They've got standards, but not that many. At least they didn't when I hired them. Now, they're talking about coming clean and becoming heroes."

"Huh, good for them," I kind of wish I could get a chance like that.

"Now," Dad said, back in serious mode, "there is one thing that we need to talk about." Dad took a deep breath and then looked me in the eyes. "I know about the drugs." I looked away. "Taylor, I need to know. Are you using?"

I started rubbing my forearms, focusing on the feeling of the smooth carapace on my fingers. "It's not what you think."

"Then what is it?"

I swallowed. "I-I don't just change on the outside. I'm, I'm adapting-evolving, constantly, and I adapt faster if I have something to adapt to."

"So the drugs?"

"If I take them now, they won't affect me later," I gave a half assed smile, "and toxins in general don't work as well either, once I've adapted to a drug or poison. So, I use the drugs now, and I'm less likely to get hurt if someone drugs or poisons me later."

Dad… His emotions felt weird for a moment, and his expression kept shifting, as though he didn't know how to feel. Then he just pulled me into a hug. "Taylor," Dad said, "I love you, and nothing will change that. If you ever get into trouble over your head, or if you've got any questions, or need my help, I'm here for you."

I hugged him back. "I love you too, Dad. Actually, I do have a couple of questions."

"Shoot."

"Why are you wearing powered armor?"

Dad let me go and we pulled apart. "Because you have super strength and claws, Taylor, and Lacey overheard a few people talking about how you'd apparently hate to accidentally carve people like turkeys the other day."

I blushed. I never expected that to come back and bite me, especially so soon.

Dad smiled. "What else were you going to ask?"

"Are strong liquors supposed to taste like cough syrup, or do I just have mutant taste buds?" There was that shifting expression again.

"So," Dad said, changing the subject, "How are the Undersiders treating you?"

"They're good to me," I answered, more confidently than when I spoke to Mom's grave. I felt some more presences enter the graveyard, but I payed them no mind. This was more important. "They're good friends."

"Good," Dad said, "and how is Sarah treating you."

"Pretty good. She gave me some great advice when I first set out to remake the zerg and-" Wait. "How do you know about Sarah." Sarah had said that the powers from her universe would spread out from me. Did that mean that Dad...

Dad was smiling. "Ask her about Jim Raynor the next time you see her. So," he said carefully, "you're trying to recreate the Zerg?"

"Yeah, my hatchery should be up and running any day now."

"Well, be careful. The last thing we want is an… incident." Dad felt a bit scared when he said that.

"Dad, it's going to be alright." I smiled in a way that I hopped was reassuring. "Honest."

"If you say so," Dad replied in a calm tone, though his emotions hadn't changed. "I've got a communicator for you," he said as he reached into his trench coat, "I want you to use it if..." Dad trailed off, staring behind me, and I could feel multiple presences behind me.

"We hate to interrupt what is probably a touching reunion," came a feminine voice, "but Kaiser has business with the so called 'Empress.' " I turned around and saw a pair of Valkyries and six young men, each with some type of automatic rifle and wearing E88's colors. This day just keeps getting worse and worse.


	22. Furor 306

**Furor 3.06**

My heart skipped a beat when the two valkyrie-dressed supermodels addressed Taylor. One with a sword and shield, one with a spear. Fenja and Menja, Kaiser's bodyguards and/or eye candy if I remembered correctly. I couldn't remember off the top of my head which was which. I wasn't quite sure what they expected the six young men with the guns to do to Taylor… Unless they were meant for me? Just in case, I took my hand from the communicator I'd been about to give to Taylor and placed it on my helmet. I'd have to thank Leet later. His "RPG Hero pocket" technology was just so convenient now that he could make more than one container with the stuff.

With my free hand, I made a discrete signal to Uber. I'd had him camp out hidden in the cemetery just for such an occasion as this. With my signal, he should be contacting Kurt, who'll be calling in the rest of the active Raiders. Afterward Uber would be playing overwatch in case this turns violent before backup arrives.

"Is this still about the name thing?" Taylor asked one of the valkyries. "If it's that important then fine, I'll change it." The valkyries and the neo-nazis behind them stood attentively. "From now on," my daughter continued in a tone dripping with sass, "I'm Super-Kaiser."

The woman with the sword gestured and suddenly six automatic rifles were trained on my little girl. The one with the spear began to speak "That's not-"

"No. Super-Kaiser-God-Empress," Taylor interrupted.

I got the impression that the spear-carrier was annoyed. "Look, child, th-"

"Super-Kaiser-God-Empress," Taylor interrupted again, this time with a lot more annoyance and anger.

"Can we just call you Empress for short?" one grunt asked. The valkyrie with the shield and sword turned to glare at him, a young blonde man. While the neo-nazis were distracted, I pulled out my helmet and placed it on.

"Hmmm," Taylor said, her tongue sticking out the side of her mouth in an obvious parody of deep thought. "Super-Kaiser-God-Empress allows this."

The sword-valkyrie turned her glare to Taylor. "You don't seem to realize just how serious this is."

"It's serious in the first place? Taylor asked mockingly. "I thought it was a grown man throwing a fit over a name? Dad, does that sound like something to take seriously?"

I shook my head… and made a note to ask what all of this was about. This clearly was not the first encounter Taylor had had with the Empire, and that was something to be concerned about.

"Kaiser doesn't throw fits," the sword bearer continued, "though he does have a problem with little upstarts attacking his messengers." When did this happen?

"Who were telling me that Kaiser was throwing a fit over my name," Taylor replied sarcastically. "Besides, they were rude, and it's not like I hurt them." Taylor pointed to the blonde who'd spoken a moment ago. "One of the idiots is right there." The so called idiot proceeded to turn his gun on my daughter and fired off a dozen shots.

The other nazis jumped in time with my heart's beat stopping. The bullets all seemed to bounce off Taylor and she didn't seem at all hurt. More annoyed as she looked down to her own belly.

She slowly looked up to the blonde idiot. "This is a new shirt," she said in reference to the tank top she was wearing. "It was a gift and I've had it for less than a day. You're very lucky that none of those bullets touched it. Now," Taylor asked, "are you trying to get killed, Blondie?"

The blonde man shook his head, then took off running, leaving only five armed youths supporting the valkyries.

"Is he um… slow?" Taylor asked. "Or is he just a product of a Winslow High education?"

One of the valkyries facepalmed. "He's someone's cousin," she said in apparent explanation of why the young man hadn't been kicked out of the gang or killed already. "Now, are you ready to take this seriously?"

"No," Taylor began. I reached for my pistol. I only had rubber bullets and other nonlethal rounds, but I could sense that this was heading towards a fight. "I'm actually a little angry. You see, this is the first time I've had a chance to talk to my father since I triggered. The first time I've been to my Mother's grave for longer still." I noticed that Taylor's posture had changed. She was hunched over, just ever so slightly, her fingers were beginning to curl, and while I couldn't see her entire face from what I could see her teeth-her fangs-were bared. "And now a bunch of nazi-assholes have shown up to ruin it because the crown prince of all nazi-assholes is throwing a fit over my name. So, I'll repeat my response to Kaiser's earlier message: Tell him to go fuck himself."

I suppose had I been in this situation four months ago, I'd have been filled with both fear and pride at Taylor saying this. Fear of the danger she was putting herself and me in, pride at her standing her ground. Considering that she was bulletproof and I was wearing a full set of powered armor, I was currently only experiencing one of those emotions.

"It's a shame that you feel that way," said the spear wielding valkyrie. "But you did just threaten to kill one of us just a moment ago." The sword wielder made a signal with her hand just as her twin finished speaking. A second later my dearly departed Annette's headstone exploded in a flash of white flame.

The next thing I knew, I was pushing myself back up from the ground and trying to figure out where the exploding shot had come from. I saw a blonde man in red with black Armor, Victor of Empire Eighty-Eight, kneeling at the very far end of the cemetery holding a long rifle. He hadn't been there earlier, he must have jumped the fence around the time the other nazis came in. I noticed that he had what at this distance seemed to be a shaft or stick sticking from his left knee while he was clutching at his right shoulder. Running at him from his left was a tall and broad shouldered man in the uniform of one of my Raiders and holding a composite bow. That'd be Uber. He must have shot an arrow in Victor's knee. As I finished climbing to my feet, I turned, just slightly, to the left to see what appeared to be a young blonde girl in a black and lavender body suit, a pistol in her hand. That must be Tattletale, one of Taylor's new teammates. I wasn't the only one who'd set a lookout, so it seems.

I turned back to see Taylor staring at the shattered remains of her mother's memorial. She was shaking. The five remaining nazi grunts had their guns trained on her and the valkyrie twins had grown to each be about eight feet tall. The one with the sword and shield raised her blade and brought it down on Taylor. My little girl moved with great speed and caught the giant blade. Without letting go, Taylor turned to the giant woman and I could see that her eyes were glowing-the whites glowed blue and her irises a deep purple. It was somewhat off-putting when combined with the rage on her face as she brought her fist-enshrouded in what I assumed to be a psionic aura-into contact with the sword at high speed. Space distorted as the psionic energy erupted in a wave of telekinetic force and shattered the blade. As the giantess stumbled, Taylor leaped at her, fangs bared and claws out, with an animalistic scream of rage.

Bullets wouldn't harm her, but they could pose a distraction. I dropped my trenchcoat to the ground and shot a rubber bullet at the hip of one nazi grunt. He collapsed in pain and the other four turned their automatic rifles on me. My armor might not be perfect, but it provided adequate protection against the storm of hot lead as I backed away, drawing the attention and fire away from Taylor… I'd have to talk to her about managing pent up anger later, at a more opportune time. Frankly, the way she was moving and the ferocity with which she was clawing at the twin giants brought to mind more a particularly sadistic cat than the young girl I'd raised.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Victor struggling to defend himself in a two-front battle with two other Thinkers. A busted knee and gunshot wound to the shoulder will do that to you, I suppose.

The four thugs on their feet had managed to run out of ammunition and apparently did not bring extra clips. The fifth was pushing himself up, however, so I took a shot at the knee of the thug closest to him, causing the standing thug to tumble over and fall upon his prone companion. The remaining three looked to each other and to their downed cohorts before turning back to me, and in their confusion, I charged at them.

One young man turned and fled, but the two who remained standing braced themselves and each tried to strike me as I collided with them and knocked them to the ground. I wasn't too far from where Taylor and the two giants were fighting. The twins were each twelve or thirteen feet by now, and Taylor had a nasty gash in her leg that she seemed to be paying no mind to. She just kept jumping and clawing and cursing at the twin giants. The spear-carrying valkyrie's weapon had a chip missing. Menja and Fenja didn't just get bigger, they became tougher and more durable at the same time. My futuristic pistol with futuristic rubber bullets would be like a fly landing on them and then flying off. Nothing I could do to help my daughter with her fight directly. The thugs I'd knocked over didn't seem keen on getting back up. I looked over and saw that victor was still struggling to fight Tattletale and Uber. Victor was a skill-thief. Apparently, he'd never stolen the skills needed to fight off a psychic and a man with perfect martial arts technique while injured.

I became aware of a presence coming in fast. I turned just in time to see what I assumed to be a muscular young man dressed head to toe in bike leathers, his head obscured by a helmet and what appeared to be the image of a floating skull. Smoke blacker than ink was pouring from his body and trailing behind him, and when he came up upon me it exploded out and everything went dark.

That would have been Grue. The leader of the Undersiders. I'd done my research after I'd found out that Taylor had joined them. His power was supposed to be darkness generation, but this was something else entirely. I couldn't hear the sounds of the fight that was a few yards from me at most. Nor could I hear the ambient sounds of the graveyard, and I couldn't see my own hand in front of my face. I tried to adjust the sensors in my helmet to compensate but even with them all on their highest settings, I might as well have been blind and deaf.

I hated this. I was quite literally alone in the dark while my little girl was fighting literal giants. I'm sure that Grue wouldn't have blinded everyone for no reason… Taylor was psychic. I'd seen her do something telekinetic to shatter the blade. Maybe she's clairvoyant or telepathic? The end result is the same, she can sense the valkyries but the twins are as blind as I am.

So I waited. And waited, and waited. After what felt like a minute I felt something moving up against my leg, so I kicked it. I figured it was a nazi trying to get back up, and I'd rather they not get away. After a few more moments of waiting the darkness began to clear and I could see again.

The very first thing I did was look to see how Taylor was doing. She was standing about ten feet from where I last saw her, hunched over and breathing heavily, and facing a single retreating Giant. I caught a glimpse, as she stepped over the fence, of the giant carrying her normal sized twin, who was, in turn, clutching a bleeding wound, as though she were a baby doll. Then I noticed the fragments of metal on the ground and that Taylor's hands were covered in blood from the tips of her talons up past her wrists. The gash on her leg was mending before my eyes. I sighed and turned to see how Uber and the Undersiders' Thinker were handling Victor. I found Uber dragging Victor by his feet and the purple Thinker following along a short distance behind. Neither of them seemed to be in much of a hurry, and with the generic thugs not seeming to be in any mood to get up and run for it, I walked over to Taylor.

"Are you alright?" I asked her.

She didn't answer right away. After a few moments, just as I was about to ask again, she mumbled "M'fine."

"Taylor?"

"I'm fine," she repeated.

She wasn't. I could tell she wasn't and I hated it. I couldn't help her if she wouldn't open up… Who was I kidding, I couldn't help her at all, could I? This whole thing was supposed to be her and I getting back in touch. Me letting her know that she was still loved and that I was still trying to bring her home. Instead, we get attacked by Empire Eighty-Eight and the Nazi bastards desecrated my late wife's grave.

"They're not going to get away with this," I said in an attempt to comfort her. I meant it. The boys and I had already taken out one gang.

"I know," she answered in the same tone as her earlier replies. She was staring at her blood covered hands.

"I hope I'm not interrupting," came a masculine voice from behind us. Taylor snapped to attention and we both turned to Grue. "I need to have a word with my teammate." Taylor looked back down at the ground. "Empress, the next time people from a rival gang threaten you, I'd appreciate it if you tell me yourself instead of letting a panicking Tattletale try and explain it to me."

"I'm sorry," Taylor said. "If you want me to leave the team so that Empire won't-"

"No," Grue interrupted. "You're not going anywhere. You're a member of our team. Even if I wanted you gone-Which I don't" The young criminal emphasized, "After the way you reacted to Glory Girl breaking Bitch's back, anyone with half a brain knows to come after us to find you." Taylor didn't seem as reassured as Grue seemed to hope. "We're gonna make them regret messing with you."

"Thank you," Taylor said quietly. "Now how did-"

The sound of dragging interrupted Taylor. Uber had arrived with Victor, the neo-nazi with a clearly broken and bleeding nose. "We might have to call an ambulance. I did the best I could for his shoulder once he was out cold, but I don't exactly have the tools to treat a gunshot wound" He turned to glare at the blonde following behind him.

"He was going to shoot my friend in the head with a white phosphorus-based anti-armor sniper round," Tattletale said in reply. "I will not apologize." I began debating the merits of kicking the downed Empire soldier in the crotch a few times as the lavender covered villainess addressed my daughter. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," Taylor said again. "So..."

"After we got back to the base," the blonde began, "I went to talk to Grue about the pair of messages you got this afternoon. After discussing it for a bit, I googled your civ name, found out where your Mom was buried, and we snuck in and hid out here just in case something like this happened." she gestured to Uber. "Turns out we weren't the only ones to plan for this meeting going south."

Taylor didn't respond. She was looking at her hands again. Then she opened her mouth and slowly stuck out her tongue. It was Gene Simmons like in length and the tip was formed at a sharper angle than a normal human tongue. It was also a bluish-purple color, but that wasn't so odd considering that she was blue on the outside. The fact that she was lapping the blood from her hands, however, was.

"Taylor that's disgusting." Her teammates didn't seem all that shocked at what she was doing.

"They taste greasy," Taylor said between licks. "Lung was savory and filling, like pasta-grains, cheese, meat, and vegetables all blended together in a proper meal." She licked the underside of one of her claws. "Glory Girl's blood was far too sweet and with little substance. Like cake frosting. Fenja's and Meja's blood tastes greasy, like a bacon cheeseburger without a bun. Good, but greasy."

My daughter was apparently a vampire now. That was… I've already accepted that she's not human anymore, I've already accepted that she's trying to recreate the zerg. "Drinks blood" isn't that big of a deal anymore. She is my daughter and I love her.

"I mean, don't get me wrong: Blood tastes like blood. But when I take someone's essence into myself like this I get this… feeling about it. I can't quite explain it."

"You absorb DNA from things you eat," Tattletale interjected. "It might be your power trying to help you tell good genes from bad ones?" Taylor shrugged, and then the blonde continued. "But I'm pretty sure that your Dad called in backup when the fight started, and between the explosion, the fight, the giant Nazi fleeing the cemetery, and the large number of armed dockworkers heading this way, well, the PRT or even the Protectorate is gonna be swarming this place any minute now. So," she finished with a smile, "those of us with felony charges pending against them need to get the Hell out of Dodge."

Without a word, Taylor and her two teammates began heading towards the back of the cemetery. "Wait," I called out, and then went for my coat. They stopped and Taylor turned back to face me. I pulled out the communicator I'd meant to give to Taylor earlier, then walked back to hand it to her.

"This runs on a private com-channel," I explained. "You just turn it on," I gestured to the switch, "and I'll know you're trying to talk to me. Please keep in touch."

Taylor took the communicator and then hugged me. I hugged my daughter back, for what might be the last time in a long while. Then I watched her and her teammates-her friends? Walk to the far end of the cemetery, hop the fence, and disappear into the night.

Uber hadn't left. His Raider uniform covered his face, and I'd bet good money that Kurt and the others would get here before the PRT did. He was in no danger. I turned to him.

"So, why exactly did you bring a bow?"


	23. Furor Interlude 2

**Furor Interlude 2**

Mouse Protector teleported into Armsmaster's tinker-workshop. The leader of Protectorate ENE was hunched over a microscope, looking up occasionally to check and cross reference a pile of documents. His trademark powered armor had been replaced by a reinforced work suit and a filtered breathing mask. Strewn across the lab were a set of air cleaners that seemed to have been hastily assembled, and there was a decontamination shower that hadn't been there on Wednesday next to the entrance/exit. The rodent-themed heroine coughed in an attempt to get her current boss's attention.

A minute later, she coughed again, louder this time… And again, louder still. Then she said, "there's a naked woman outside your lab and she has an autograph book."

"Call security then," The local protectorate leader replied as he turned to face her. One he had, he tossed a mask similar to what he himself was wearing to her. "Put it on, now." Mouse protector turned around, removed her trademark headgear, and strapped on the mask before returning to face the current leader of the protectorate. "What do you need, Mouse Protector?" the man asked when as she did so.

"There are some things that came up while investigating the incident earlier tonight," The hammy hero explained, "I've already submitted my report to the director, but there's some information I think you need to know. That is," she gestured to the desk, "if I'm not interrupting anything major?"

"Not particularly," Armsmaster replied. "I'm just doing preliminary research for an array of anti-Empress measures. Give me a second to lock this back up." Armsmaster turned back, removed the slide from the microscope, placed it in a tinker-tech looking lock box which sealed itself. "For the foreseeable future," Armsmaster commented, "don't come into my lab without at least a gas mask, just in case."

"Sir, what is that?" Mouse Protector would never admit it, but the heightened security measures in the lab had her concerned.

"Back in October 2009, the Slaughterhouse Nine attacked Milwaukee. During the attack, a tip-off led Alexandria to a warehouse where Jack Slash and Bonesaw were observing two men fighting to the death, with two vials on a table." Armsmaster paused for a moment, the sound his filter mask made indicating that he inhaled deeply. "As soon as Alexandria flew in, Bonesaw released some kind of gas. When the smoke cleared all that remained were two melted men and one of the vials, and it was claimed by the PRT."

Mouse Protector nodded in understanding. "And that slide was-"

"A sample of the vial's contents," Armsmaster interrupted. "They were analyzed and found to be a Tinker-tech virus that selectively targets and destroys a host's immune system."

"And you want to use this super-AIDS against Empress?" Mouse Protector was incredulous.

"God no." The local Protectorate leader seemed somewhat offended at the thought. "Empress does not have a kill order, is just a child, and as far as an approximate third of the city's population is concerned is only a villain because we made a mistake." Armsmaster's tone did not betray his opinion on that subject. "Even if lethal force was required, a Bonesaw plague would be needlessly cruel, and if she somehow survived and adapted there's no telling what could happen. No," the Tinker concluded, "I called in several favors to get this sample and a copy of the notes on it so that I could study it. If I can replicate its effects on a smaller, temporary scale, I'll have a powerful immunosuppressant that could keep Empress from adapting to my new tranquilizer until after she's in custody."

"Well then," Mouse Protector said, "I'll just go through the main points of tonight's event so you can get back to work." The heroine raised a hand and raised her index finger: "I think that Bastion and Empress are in contact." The bird rose to join its sibling, "the nazis are out for Empress's mutant blood." The ring bearer shot up next, "Victor's been captured." And the baby of the family woke up from its nap, "and the skinheads blew up Empress's mother's grave."

 **Long Live Empress Taylor**

"You blew up her mother's grave!" The warehouse practically shook with Kaiser's shout.

It was quite apparent to Nessa, alias Menja, and to the rest of the assembled Empire soldiers-every active cape in the Empire, that Kaiser was pissed. For a brief moment, Nessa felt that it was only that she was Kaiser's cousin by marriage that kept him from killing her on the spot, but the fear waned soon after. Kaiser wasn't like that dragon-slant or the drug-pushing negro. He was better than them. He didn't punish failure so savagely.

Jessica was resting nearby. Othala had healed her lacerations and punctured organs, but Nessa's twin had some very close to death at the hands of that mutant and needed time to recover emotionally, leaving Nessa alone to explain how the mission to intimidate and/or assassinate Empress had failed.

Kaiser seemed exasperated by all that had happened. "Is there anything else I should know of-are you absolutely certain that no one else escaped the cemetery?"

"Well, that Schuster kid shot the mutant girl unprovoked and then ran away." Schuster was the young cousin of a Medhall employee who had sympathies with the movement and was vaguely aware of the loyalties of the CEO. The young Schuster's father was a deadbeat and the elder had enough pity for his cousin to call in a favor but not enough to do anything about it himself.

After a moment of silence, Kaiser turned to Hookwolf. "My friend, just the other day you mentioned needing someone to clean up after your fighting dogs. If the boy turns up..."

Hookwolf nodded in understanding. "A few weeks of cleaning up shit, blood, and carcasses should teach the little idiot a thing or two."

"So," Kaiser changed the subject, "it seems we've underestimated the so-called Empress. We're in good company-the PRT thought her a mindless killer, the media a frightened child. Lung is coming at it from the other side-he thinks she's monster like himself, but he's wrong too." Kaiser laughed. "She's a cockroach. A difficult to kill pest, that sometimes requires professional help." Kaiser laughed. "I'm going to contact Purity talk to her about returning to active duty. Krieg," Kaiser said as he turned to the as of yet unaddressed lieutenant, "can you get into contact with Gesellschaft? I'd like to talk to them about borrowing one of their specialists." Krieg nodded in understanding. "And we should reinforce any operations we have near the Dockyard, in case the girl's father decides to act against us in retaliation for the desecration of his wife's grave. Menja," he addressed the valkyrie, "you are dismissed, as are the rest of you," he finished as he gestured to every cape, save Hookwolf and Krieg.

Nessa nodded and left. The last thing she heard as she exited the room was Kaiser mentioning something about retrieving Victor before he found his way to prison.

 **Long Live Empress Taylor**

Skidmark limped into the booth and picked up the phone. The fucking guards had told him he had a visitor but he didn't know who would visit him in this shithole cape prison. Trainwreck vanished before everything went to hell, Mush was in here with him… well, in solitary, and as far as he knew that bastard tinker had killed Squealer. The only good thing about all of this is that the fuckheads let him keep his mask. He looked up, to the person across the glass, and cursed in surprise.

"Holy shit! Squ-"

The blonde woman across the glass cut him off. "Yeah, it's me Skids." She placed a hand on the glass and Skidmark met her on his end.

"Look, since you're on the outside," Skidmark began, "you've gotta get me some speed. All they've got in here are smokes, piss-bowl wine, and one of the Nazis has some smack but he's not sharing."

The blonde on the other end, once known as Squealer, was silent for a moment. "Look, Skids, I love you, but I've got to tell you something and you're not gonna like hearing it..."

And Squealer was right. Skidmark _didn't_ like hearing it.


	24. Furor 307

**Furor 3.07**

"Ninety-eight, ninety-nine... one hundred."

"Can I stop sitting on your back now?" Alec complained. "Your shell is worse than an old park bench and the towel is not helping with the spikes. Seriously, you've taken all the fun out of sitting on a naked girl."

I rolled my eyes and lowered myself down so Alec could just slide off instead of jumping. I shouldn't be annoyed with him, he'd volunteered to help with my exercise routine, since Rachel was busy. Besides, I'm pretty sure he was joking. I think. His emotions are still scary and wrong.

"You need me for anything else?" Alec asked. "Or can I go back to my game? I killed a guy I'm pretty sure was Leet five times last night and I want to see if I can find him again."

I laughed as I climbed to my feet. "Yeah, you can get going."

Alec tried to leave without a word, but I heard a slight zap and him swear under breath when he got to my door. He'd been getting and giving static shocks a lot lately. I couldn't tell why. Was it the creep mat I had down here? Did creep hold up a static charge? I guess that's something to ask Sarah about the next time I see her. I wasn't getting rid of it. It felt great on my bare feet and something about the creep was comforting.

Besides, Rachel's dogs liked it, once they got used to it.

As he left, I did a few stretches. I'd started an exercise routine the morning after meeting with Dad at the cemetery. We'd all gotten together, the other Undersiders and I, and discussed what to do, and decided that we needed to hit Empire back before they could do something else. We'd discussed different ideas but didn't have anything decided on yet. So then we started training together more often… Well, they did. I could sit in on strategy meetings and contribute there, but… I thought to that Agent whose arm I'd torn off. I could watch and learn holds and strikes, but I wasn't going to risk maiming my new friends practicing them.

Once Alec left I abandoned the towel, then sat down for my sit-ups. Honestly, I'd prefer to be running but I didn't think it was safe to go outside alone right now. At least the routine was something to do, I couldn't just browse the internet all day-some of those articles just pissed me off and the number of people on PHO who went from "burn the witch" to "that poor thing" over Victor's desecration at the cemetery was disgusting, especially since it was just Dad's word about what happened there. The PRT had yet to release a statement.

"...Seventy-one, seventy-two, seventy-three," I counted off, "seventy-four, seventy-five-"

"Taylor!" Lisa shouted from up the stairs, "I need to talk to you about something."

"Come on down!" I shouted back up, "seventy-six."

"You know," Lisa said as she came to the bottom of the stairs, "that's not really doing much for you, right?"

"Of course not, seventy-seven," I answered, "I've only been doing it for a few days. Seventy-eight. These things take time, seventy-nine."

"That's not what… Not important," Lisa shook her head. "I've noticed some changes since we've moved in with you."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. She raised a hand and started counting off of her fingers, "Rachel's dogs look different now, and they seem to do what she wants before she gives off her commands to them. Sometimes I've seen them acting without a command at all." She raised her second finger, "Brian's darkness seems… bleaker, or deeper, or I don't even know how to describe it. I mean," she clarified, "it's always been a like being in a void, but now it's like it's far more vast a void." She raised a third finger, "and you've seen how Alec's been shocking the crap out of himself. It's been subtle. I didn't notice Rachel at first since we were a bit pre-occupied at the bank, and I don't think I'd have noticed the change with Brian or put two and two together," she said, "if I hadn't started noticing more things than I normally do. Taylor, I think you're a Trump."

This was happening already? Dad had gotten a power boost, just like Sarah said would happen, though I'm not sure when. Or at least, he'd talked to one of Sarah's friends, so maybe… I smiled.

Lisa took notice. "You knew. You -Holy shit," she said as though she'd hit a sudden revelation, "That… It, it's permanent. It's what your power is really for, isn't it?"

I nodded. "Yeah, tell me, have you had any weird dreams lately?"

"No… Should I be on the lookout for that?"

"Yeah," I answered, "let me know if you do-I'm not sure if the others will believe me if I explain before they've seen it themselves."

"Taylor," Lisa asked, "you're not going to tell me that you got your powers from some drug given to you by a conspiracy that's trying to save the world from some threat, are you?"

"One of three," I answered.

"...how worried should I be?"

"Not very. Apparently whatever the threat is is a lower priority that getting my life back together," I answered, "at least that's what Sarah says."

Lisa reacted to Sarah's name. She didn't show it, but I felt an odd mixture of emotions emanate from her.

"Taylor," she said, "I don't like not knowing things. What's going on?"

"Look, to be honest, I didn't expect this to happen for a while," I stopped my situps and sat up to reply, "I'll tell you what, if any of the others notice the changes to your powers by next week, or have one of these weird dreams, I'll explain it to everyone at once. If no one noticed after seven days from today, I'll explain it to you and you can tell the others if you want." I debated whether or not I should tell Rachel regardless. She was gruff, but by the amount of time she spent around me compared to the others, I was getting the feeling she liked me for some reason. "Does that sound okay?"

Lisa was silent for a good while. "We're not going to change like you do, are we?"

"You shouldn't, no."

"Are these dream people going to fuck with our heads?"

"Not to my knowledge."

She sighed. "Okay, I trust you, just… Not a week. Three days, because this shit is important."

"Okay," I agreed, "if no one else notices in three days, I'll tell them then."

Lisa nodded and then turned to leave. She was halfway up the stairs when she turned and came running back in. "I almost forgot: Brian is going to be here in about half an hour. I talked with him earlier, we think we've got a plan for our counter-attack against the Empire." She seemed a bit sheepish for a moment. "I came here to tell everyone and then I saw Rachel's dogs acting odd and everything clicked."

"Oh, okay." I clenched my fist. I… Revenge wasn't something I normally thought about. If it was, Emma would have been dead months ago. I wasn't sure if revenge was even the right word for what I wanted, but the thought of Kaiser getting away with his temper-tantrum, for desecrating my Mom's grave… it made me feel sick.

"Calm down Taylor," Lisa said. I'd tried not to let my feelings show, but I'm not good enough to hide them from Lisa. "Just… you were on 92 when you let off."

I sighed. "Thanks, Lisa."

She left, presumably to tell the others about the meeting, and I finished my sit ups. I had half an hour till Brian got here, so I started my squats.

 **All Hail Empress Taylor**

It was odd. Hookwolf was clearly dedicated to the security of his operation here, with the number of armed guards and with Stormtiger and Cricket at his side, but at the same time they were just standing there next to an open loading dock and nobody was bothering to look at the roof of the building across the street from their warehouse. To be fair, Bitch, her dog Brutus, and I were laying down flat, they might not be able to see us from the street, but still.

The others were sneaking around from the back and would burst in after Bitch and I did our thing. We just had to wait for our cue.

I heard a gunshot coming from inside the building. I looked to Bitch, to see if she noticed it too or if I only picked it up with my freaky mutant ears. Then I remembered that she didn't emote the way a human did and I couldn't see her face through her mask, making the endeavor pointless.

I turned back to the warehouse. Cricket had gone into the building. I could hear yelling but I couldn't make out what was being said. About five minutes later Cricket was back, and a few minutes later I noticed movement in an alley to the side of the building. Some blonde kid with a torn and bloody sleeve was dragging a garbage bag out to a dumpster. Brutus started growling, for just a moment before Bitch put a hand on him, and shortly afterward the young man left the warehouse entirely.

I focused on the emotions in the area. Bitch was pissed off, as far as I could tell. Hookwolf and his associates all felt various degrees of bored and frustrated-I made sure to memorize their individual signatures. Grue was going to throw up darkness once we were inside and my job was to kick Hookwolf's ass, I didn't want to lose track of him. I could feel the others moving into position on the other side of the warehouse, there were three bored people that had been sitting up the road for the past hour and… there was a determined presence swiftly approaching.

I strained my hearing just as a large van pulled up to Hookwolf and stopped in front of the gathered super-Nazis.

"You got the cash?" I barely picked the newcomer say in a mild Bostonian accent.

"It's inside," Hookwolf answered, "come on Jake you know the drill, you don't get paid until we check the dogs." And there was my cue! I leaped from the roof and began diving towards the shirtless masked Nazi!

...Then the other shirtless masked Nazi raised his fists, pointed them at me, and then I felt an exploding sensation and landed in the street in a heap.

"You need to be more subtle," Stormtiger said. "We've known you were here for ten minutes, you freak."

I jumped to my feet and charged at the gathered group-the dog seller was about to head back into his van but I'd gotten to him fast enough to grab him. I broke the man's arm and threw him at Cricket.

The female villain easily dodged the man, then drew her kamas and charge at me. Meanwhile Stormtiger did the same with what were presumably more of his invisible air claws. Hookwolf was between then but not charging yet. Bostonian dog seller was crawling away, so I paid him no mind. As the two charging Nazis closed in, I pushed out with my pulse, pushing them towards Hookwolf, and then I leaped forward to push all three of the bastards into the warehouse.

I spaced out for just a second but I came back to my senses when the sensation of biting into something bloody and fleshy and full of sharp metal pointy bits. During the struggle I'd taken a bite out of Hookwolf. I could see his muscles, infused with blades and hooks, in the open bicep wound. I was suddenly very aware of the fact that no one was moving to attack me, and everyone was staring at me with various combinations of fear, disgust, and confusion.

"What the fuck?" the Nazi I ate part of asked. "Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you?"

Rather than answer, I chewed once, swallowed, and stood up. I, I honestly didn't know what to do next. Luckily, mere moments later Brutus, boosted up to the size of a horse, leaped into the warehouse and suddenly all of the nonpowered Neo-Nazi's turned their guns on Brutus and me.

For one brief moment I felt like Alexandria with the bullets bouncing from me, as they didn't even tickle anymore, but then it started to get annoying again soon after. I took a moment to note that Brutus didn't seem particularly bothered by the gunfire either. He had a few armored plates on him that he didn't have at the bank, and seemed more purple than he was then.

While the storm of hot led continued, I took in the rest of the warehouse-there were some cages against a far wall. There was some blood on the floor in front of one of them, but all but one cage was empty.

The shooting stopped-some of the guns clicked with empty magazines-and within an instant Hookwolf was off the floor and a mass of whirling blades was upon me. I jumped to the left and managed to narrowly dodge Hookwolf's charge. Just as I turned around, I saw a door on the far end of the building burst open and a cloud of darkness billowed out and began flowing into the room, engulfing several of the Empire grunts.

Cricket came to her feet and ran head-first into the growing void, and I heard Bitch shouting "Brutus, sic!" from out on the street just before the big dog jumped at Stormtiger, leaving me practically alone with a whirling ball of sharp Nazi death.

The Empire soldier in question had assumed the form of a massive wolf made of hooks and blades and then jumped at me. Rather than dodge, I met the man-turned-beast head on and punched him-knocking a few blades loose from the metallic monster and pushing him about a foot away from me.

Undaunted by the damage he'd taken, Hookwolf assumed a serpentine form and circled around me. I turned around to head off an attack from the rear, and in doing so caught sight of Regent emerging from Grue's darkness and tasering one of the few thugs who hadn't been engulfed with his scepter. I was unable to observe further because I had to dodge-Hookwolf shifted his mass as he slithered past me and a spiraling growth of blades jutted from his side towards mine.

The mass of blades collapsed on the ground and then, with speed I didn't expect, changed directions and flew back at me. I tried to jump over him, but Hookwolf was too fast and too sudden and the impact hit my legs and flipped me over the other cape and sent me face first into the floor.

I tried to push myself up but Hookwolf managed to get around me and grab my right arm. I could feel the blades trying to cut through my scales and carapace, but the Zerg in my system made them hold firm. I tried to pull my arm from the whirling ball of Empire-brute, but Hookwolf managed to hold on tight.

As I struggled with Hookwolf, I heard Tattletale yell "Bitch, down!" the sound of a body hit the floor, and a high pitched whine combined with a wet stabbing sound. Then I felt the first clear bit of emotion I've ever gotten from Bitch: Unadulterated rage.

"Brutus! Kill!" With that declaration, and a mighty roar, the monstrous dog charged toward what felt like Stormtiger, who for a brief moment radiated pure terror. Meanwhile, I continued struggling with Hookwolf. I was pulled to my feet and the two of us performed a deadly waltz around the visible parts of the warehouse, where I saw Empire grunts running around like chickens with their heads cut off, Regent tasering those who got close to him and making the rest trip and stumble, Tattletale with a briefcase she didn't have when we got here, and Grue's cloud of darkness.

I managed to get some momentum going and swung Hookwolf over my head and into the ground, but still the other cape held on. He managed to pull me to the ground with him, and we rolled on the floor until I found myself pinned to the ground by the wrist. I felt his grip tighten, and then something got under my scales. I felt the strange sensation of a scale being torn off, and then redoubled my efforts to pull my hand away-but that only made Hookwolf's grip tighter still. I felt my hearts racing as more of my scales came loose and something started digging into my flesh and with a mighty pull I finally freed my arm from his grip. My heart beats ceased for a moment as I saw the small nub of metal and crystal pocking from the bleeding stump where my hand had once been. I screamed, and the next thing I knew, Hookwolf was crashing into the ceiling of the warehouse with the force of my telekinetic pulse.

Suddenly everything stopped. The sound of a body hitting the floor met my ears, and I could see Grue's dark void clearing up, but soon there was nothing but silence… and then the sirens. I hadn't noticed them before, but they were loud, so the were close, and then before I knew it I could sense that the warehouse was surrounded.

PRT Agents and police officers began flooding into the building just as Hookwolf got unstuck from the ceiling and crashed to the floor. As my friends, judging from their emotions, took a combat ready stance, Armsmaster and Miss Militia stepped into the warehouse. The patriotic heroine raised her ever-present green weapon towards me and it took the form of-there was a sharp and loud, like a cat hissing into a megaphone, and I jumped back, quickly, and landed on all fours. I stumbled due to my missing hand. Bitch whistled and Brutus was next to me in a second, growling at the heroes. People-cops, agents, even my friends-were staring at me, and it was only then that I realized that the hissing sound had come from me.

"Alright," Armsmaster said as though nothing had happened, "You're all under arrest. If you come quietly and behave yourselves," he said in clear reference to my friends and I, "then you some of you might be granted leniency." He then walked to Hookwolf, who'd returned to human form, and checked him over before cuffing the downed villain.

"Counter-offer," Tattletale declared, "we're going to leave, we're going to take that van full of dogs outside, and this briefcase with the couple thousand dollars Hookwolf was going to pay for the dogs with," and some other things, if Tattletale had stuck with the plan. I couldn't see her face, but I got the impression that Tattletale was giving her trademark grin. "And you're just going to let us."

"And why would we do that?" Miss Militia asked in response. She was aiming that contemptible device, the launcher for those fucking grenades, at my friend now.

"In no particular order," Tattletale began, "half the people you brought with you are normal cops. Normal cops armed with Tinker-tech that Empress's father has been providing." When Tattletale said that, I noticed that each cop was carrying a gun like the one Dad had in the cemetery. "Even assuming that none of them think that Empress is innocent of the initial charges you made against her-which the officer behind you is, Miss Militia-do you honestly think that any of them want to piss off their golden goose?" I noted that the police officers and one of the PRT Agents all seemed a bit less sure of themselves than they had been before. "One of your agents thinks she's innocent too."

"The officer's are just doing their jobs," Armsmaster replied. "I haven't had much contact with Bastion, but he didn't seem petty enough to deny services to the police that could save their lives or the lives of the people they interact with just because a few officers brought in a wanted criminal."

"Okay then, how about the fact that you're not supposed to fuck with us if we're not actively committing crimes?" Yeah, that's right. Lisa had said that the PRT wouldn't do anything to us. That's how we were able to have our girl's day out. "All we did was fuck up some villains. Maybe we've decided to go hero?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Miss Militia denied. "Besides, you've all got charges pending against you. Even if you have decided to turn over a new leaf, you'd have to submit yourselves to justice anyway if you want any sense of legitimacy."

Armsmaster crouched down, next to Hookwolf, and retrieved a set of tongs and an evidence bag. "I can think of another reason for you to come with us" He picked up my severed hand and bagged it. "Unless you're harboring the Slaughterhouse Nine, I doubt you have access to either the skill or the resources needed to reattach a human hand, let alone the hand of an organism as advanced as Empress." My skin crawled at the way he used the word 'organism.' "The PRT, on the other hand… Well, surrendering to us is Empress's best bet if she doesn't want to be crippled for life."

I panicked. I couldn't do that. I couldn't let them get me. "It'll grow back!" I half-bluffed. Oh dear god I hope it'll grow back.

"Really now?" The armored hero replied. "So you wouldn't mind if I took this back to my lab and ran some tests on it?"

"Not at all," I said through a forced grin.

"Alright then," the hero said. "Well if you change your mind, you've already been told how to get it back." He turned to Lisa, "anything else?"

"Yeah, there is," Tattletale picked up before Armsmaster or Miss Militia could respond, "do you really want to go to the effort of fighting us? Or do you just want to arrest the..." Tattletale started counting tasered or unconscious thugs. "Arrest the fourteen gangsters, three supervillains, and that animal smuggler you've got handcuffed outside? Letting us go guarantees eighteen arrests, getting a lot of Empire soldiers and three of their most violent capes off the streets with practically no effort on your part." Tattletale was smiling again, I could feel it. "If you fight us, you could add five villains to that total… Or you could catch none of us, get badly hurt, possibly bad enough that you can't take in the people already down, and have wasted time and effort for nothing. Bird in the hand, heroes, letting us go is more efficient."

"Don't patronize me," Armsmaster replied. "All taking the easy way out, arresting villains we didn't defeat without even trying to arrest the villains who did, all that does is make us look like your cleanup crew."

"I suppose so," my friend said, "but what's more important: Looking good, or taking these dangerous thugs," she gestured Hookwolf, and Stormtiger, and Cricket, "off the streets when you've got the chance?"

"You have one more chance to convince me that we should let you go on to commit more crimes," Armsmaster said with certainty. "Any further attempts, and I'll assume you intend to resist arrest and we'll react accordingly." Miss Militia punctuated her cohort's statement by gesturing to each of us with that damned launcher.

"Alright then," Tattletale began, "I lied about not going in any special order, I saved this one for last: You're afraid."

"Excuse me?" The leader of the Brockton Bay Protectorate and his associate asked simultaneously.

"Empress is badly hurt, curled up on the ground, and scared out of her wits of you," wow, thanks Lisa, "but you're not moving to apprehend her even though your boss went on the TV news and called her a dangerous psychopath. It's because you're afraid," Tattletale took a more relaxed stance, "you know what she's capable of. You know that if you fail, then anything you've used against her will have made her stronger, and thus, that much harder to take down next time." Tattletale laughed. "Miss Militia might be able to take Empress down, though the collateral damage of a weapon strong enough would kill us all, herself and Empress included, and destroy the building at bare minimum. She'd never risk it." It was then that I noticed that Miss Militia's anger was slightly spicier and a touch more bitter than anger normally was. For a brief moment, I wondered if I shouldn't catalog the different flavors and sensations of emotions, if only to keep my mind off of that fucking weapon of hers.

"As for you, Armsmaster," Tattletale continued, "you don't have a single gadget that you're sure won't make Empress stronger, at least not yet. You're working on it, but it's nowhere near ready." Lisa touched two fingers to her right temple. "You don't think you can beat her, even now, and you don't want to risk her destroying your tech, or hurting you, or Miss Militia, or any of the agents or officers with you." She laughed again. "You're more afraid of Empress than she is of you-All of you are. I know, because I'm psychic, and so is she." Tattletale turned to me, "you can feel it too, can't you Empress?" At her prompting, I took a deep breath, tried to calm down, and reached out with my senses. Armsmaster… I couldn't read him. There was some kind of interference. Miss Militia was frightened but determined, and the people with them… Fucking terrified! Especially that one agent who kept trying to rub his shoulder.

I swallowed my fear and gave the biggest, most feral grin I could muster. "Yeah! I can practically taste their terror. It's delicious!" The terror of the grunts shot up like a rocket with that.

"So I'll ask, how willing are the two of you to risk your own lives for such a small reward?" Tattletale sounded her most smug. "Are you willing to risk the people with you? I mean, we don't exactly want to hurt you all, but we will if you make us. So, just take the easy arrests and let us go."

The heroes were silent for a moment. Armsmaster turned to look at the cops and Agents with him "Alright," Armsmaster declared as he turned back to us. "Now get out of here before I change my mind, and know that this is your one and only free pass." Miss Militia didn't feel too happy about that, but the scary foam weapon became a knife so I guess she was going along with it.

"Bitch," Tattletale said, "Grue, Regent, and I are going to leave first-I don't trust that Armsy will keep his word once Empress is gone. After we're gone, take Empress back to the base first-she's not going to be able to help with certain things until after she's treated her wound. Once she's dropped off, come meet us at the rendezvous point."

The rendezvous point was Rachel's dog-shelter. Bitch came over to Brutus and I, and climbed up onto her dog. Then she offered me her hand, which I took, and soon I was riding bitch behind Bitch atop Brutus.

As cops and PRT agents cleared a path, Tattletale started making some last minute announcements. "You're going to need to get Stormtiger to a hospital in the next half-hour if you don't want him to die-it's a stroke of luck he isn't already dead and he's probably going to lose that leg unless Panacea is feeling charitable." She turned back to me as Grue left the building and out of my line of sight-towards where I could sense the dog smuggler from earlier. I guess to get the van keys? "Empress," she gestured to Brutus, "I think this counts for that thing we talked about earlier." I looked to the armored plates, extra spikes, and purplish color of Brutus. It was undeniable that Bitch's power had been altered. I nodded, and Tattletale, Grue, and Regent loaded into the van and drove off.

Shortly after, Rachel tapped Brutus and we tore off into the night, heading in a different direction than the van. I couldn't sense anyone tailing us, so I let myself relax and held onto Bitch.

"Are-are you okay?" she asked me.

"...Yeah," I said. "Getting my hand cut off wasn't anywhere near as painful as you'd think. It was mostly just the shock of it all."

"Good."

"Besides," I continued, "it'll grow back." I was going to make sure of it. I didn't want to do it, but I was going to have to create The Cocoon.


	25. Furor 308

**Furor 3.08**

I finished up my paperwork for the day, then left my office to check on how the people in the dockyard were doing. I briefly thought back to before this mess happened, back when we were just normal dockworkers before Taylor was on the run, and before the Merchants had torn this place up trying to, apparently, steal my technology. The place was barely recognizable now, with bunkers and workshops dotting the place in strategic locations and a fortified wall surrounding the yard, a chorus of metal on metal and the heat of furnaces came from the still-in-construction command center and supply depot. It was an adjustment for the workers and an adjustment for our neighbors-more than once we'd been approached with noise complaints, but it was a sign of the transformation of the Dock Workers Association from a dying enterprise to a decently well off force for good in the city. If something like this had happened a few months ago, before the mess with Taylor, it'd have been a dream come true.

I knew that my contractors weren't in today, they'd had that meeting with the district attorney, but… I found a certain newer worker, a young woman, who was a touch twitchy and kept stealing glances at the SCVs, but considering her history I suppose that was understandable.

Everything seemed fine in the yard, and with nothing else needing my immediate attention, I headed over to the main workshop. I think I could get the powered armor ready for testing with a bit of tweaking and maybe get some work done on a little something I had been cooking up to show Empire Eighty-eight my displeasure at what they had done to my family and what they were trying to do to it still.

The workshop was emptier than it had been when we first built it. Where before it'd been a wide area filled with tools and workstations, it was now mostly open. My contract with Dragon had been finalized and the first payment on my end was next week, so we were prepping the main workshop to be converted into a small scale factory for mass production of powered armor. Once I'd gotten the prototype done, that was. That didn't stop us from having the pieces of a chassis of something special here until we needed the space, nor from having the prototype powered armor on a frame nearby. A bulky thing with thick armor and an opaque dome protecting the pilot's head… In truth, my own personal armor was more sophisticated than this, but the Terran Marine armor was stronger and more durable. Less practical for… casual… crime fighting and less maneuverable, but I had the feeling that if the conflict between my daughter and the Empire didn't end soon it would erupt into all-out war, and if this armor was out there it would help the Raiders and I end this whole mess.

Not to mention that, between the durability of Neo-Steel and the environmental protection the armor provided, we could sell the surplus for dozens of times the cost to make it and they'd still sell like hotcakes to every emergency service in the country.

It was almost done, really. I just needed to make a few last minute adjustments to some of the servos and double check that the emergency escape mechanisms worked-I'd hate to have to cut someone out of one of these things. It was a personal modification to the design over what my power told me was the pure Terran Original. From what I'd put together, Terran Medics actually would cut wounded Marines out of the armor if they had to, it was cheaper that way, but as much of a shithole as Brockton Bay was it wasn't bad enough that I'd put cost over the safety of the people working with me.

I was only one in the workshop when I arrived and so just went to work. Just as I got to it, my communicator went off. The beep was a higher tone than the normal one, meaning it was a private channel, and that meant that it was- "Taylor?" I answered.

 _"Yeah,"_ she replied, _"I just… felt like I needed to talk to you. I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"_

 _"_ No," I said, "I'm just doing a bit of tinkering."

 _"Same here,"_ she replied, _"just a little something I've been putting off."_

"Please don't tell me it's ultralisks."

 _"...How much do you know about the zerg?"_

"More than I ever wanted to," I replied.

 _"Well, it's not ultralisks. I don't even have larva yet,"_ she laughed and I was suddenly glad that I was alone in here. Explaining that my daughter was cooking up alien bug monsters… yeah, that would be awkward.

I heard a slurping sound from Taylor's end. Considering her new dietary habits and manner of recreation, I was somewhat concerned. "Taylor," I asked, "what are you drinking?"

 _"Antifreeze,"_ she answered matter of factly. I was silent for a moment. _"Dad?"_

"...Why?"

 _"Uh… this is probably going to sound silly, but… I had a weird dream the other night."_ She paused. _"I was cold, and it felt like someone was poking holes in me. They were talking about something, but all I could hear was the word 'some' and a conversation about getting something neutered. Then I got a lot colder and woke up with the strange feeling that I needed to be a bit more proactive in building my toxin resistance."_ I heard another slurp. _"It's not that bad, actually."_

"You're gonna be the death of me, Kiddo."

" _Sorry."_

"It's alright," I said, "but you're okay otherwise?"

 _"Yeah,"_ she said. I heard a disturbance of some kind, " _um, Tattletale is here, and it feels important. Can you hold on for a second?"_

"Yes." It was at that moment that my communicator let out another, deeper beep. "Actually, I'm getting another call."

 _"Oh, okay. So we'll talk some more in a little bit?"_

"Sounds good. I love you."

 _"Love you too, Dad."_ she hung up, and I switched calls.

"Boss man here," I answered with my civilian call sign.

 _"There's a situation down at the gate,"_ Kurt's voice said through the device's speaker. _"I think it needs your attention"_

"What's going on?" I asked back.

 _"I don't think you'll believe me until you see it yourself."_

"Alright, I'll be down in a second." I ended the call and made my way to the gate while trying not to imagine the worst case scenario.

The first thing I noticed, when I got to the already opened gate, was the leering, fanged mouth on the demonic visage that hid Oni Lee's face. Then I noticed that he was holding a white flag and wasn't… visibly armed. In fact, he wasn't visibly dressed-other than his mask, he was only wearing boxer shorts and boots. It was bizarre, but I guess someone with his reputation needed to be extra thorough when proving that they came in peace. He saw me and motioned for me to come closer.

"Message," he said, "from Lung to Bastion." He held out a folded piece of paper. After a moment, I took the note and the other man turned around, crumbling to ash moments later. I read the note.

"Somer's Rock, 8:00 P.M. Bring any associates," I said aloud, "and there's an address that I'm assuming is for Somer's Rock." I looked to Kurt. "How would you like to test drive the powered armor tonight?"

 **Long Live Empress Taylor**

Gearshift stopped the transport-an unarmed military-style personnel carrier, albeit one modified with Terran-based armor and disguised as a moving van-about a block from the bar and we piled out and walked the rest of the way. Uber and Leet, just a few hours into their career as legitimate heroes, led the way as they'd been here a few times before. They were dressed in custom modified Raider uniforms, their ghost masks replaced with helmets they claimed were modeled on someone named Captain Falcon but in colors that matched the Raiders' equipment. I'd asked and they'd just said something about Leet getting an 'F-Zero' vibe from something that was apparently meant to be his tech combined with mine. Next was Gearshift, dressed in a mechanic's jumpsuit-reinforced with a ballistic weave-and a mask, with built in rectangular welding goggles, that covered the top half of her face. Her blonde hair was in a pixie cut, completing her transformation. I followed behind her, in my normal sleek powered armor, and my Lieutenant held up the rear, doing admirably in the bulkier but more powerful model he was currently piloting.

Somer's Rock was a nondescript hole in the wall with rusted bars in the windows, the same as most of the other buildings on this street. If it wasn't for the deaf family that owned and ran it, going back generations I was told, it would be utterly unremarkable. My Lieutenant had a bit of trouble getting through the door, but he managed to get in without causing damage to the building. Other than the young woman and the twin men behind the bar, there were four people in the bar, arranged around a clustered group of tables. Sitting on a chair that barely held his massive muscular form was Lung, his dragon's mask askew, so as to show his mouth. He was drinking vodka from a bottle as we entered, rather than any stereotypically "Asian" beverage. Standing behind the tattooed man were Oni Lee and a woman wearing a metal mask, with a gas mask filter, who I recognized from my research into the local villains as Bakuda. She was relatively new in town, it's only been a few months at most since Lung recruited her, and she was completely apparently a mad-bomber style Tinker. Sitting in the chair across from Lung was a bone-thin man in an all-concealing, skin-tight black bodysuit. He turned to face me and I saw the image of a cobra in white upon his face.

"You invited a hero, Lung?" The man said, "I'm quite certain that that's against the rules."

"He's involved," the muscle-bound brute replied, "and I'd kindly suggest that you hold your tongue unless you want me to rip it from your fucking mouth."

"Apologies," the man said, he stood and came over to us. He extended his hand to shake. "Coil."

I hesitated for just a moment in taking his hand, then answered "Bastion. This is my Lieutenant," I said with a gesture to Kurt's powered armored form, "You probably already know about Uber and Leet."

"I'd wondered where they'd disappeared off to," the snake-faced man said.

"Yeah, we're legit now," Uber interjected. "Paid off some fines, talked to some lawyer's, worked something out at the DA's office. As of today, it's all official."

Leet grumbled something about an "arm and a leg". I'd been informed that a lot of those fines had come out of his tinkering budget.

"Is that Squealer!?" shouted the woman behind Lung.

"It's Gearshift now," the Raider's latest Tinker replied.

"Leaving your boyfriend for the guy who crippled him and put him in prison?" the other woman mock-asked, "that's cold." I could practically taste the rage Gearshift was directing to Bakuda.

"Excuse me," came a new voice in a tone dripping with sarcasm, "you're blocking the door." Coil returned to his seat and my team and I cleared the door for the new arrivals. Entering behind the skull-helmed young man and the purple-clad villainess I'd encountered in the cemetery came a young man in an effeminate but regal outfit and a Venetian mask, who I assumed to have made the comment, and a girl with a fur collar and a plastic dog mask. Grue looked at the masked boy in what I assumed to be a glare. Finally came my daughter, clad in only the scales I'd forced myself to accept were her only costume and-

"What the hell!?" I shouted, looking Taylor in the eye.

I'd startled her and she stumbled back. "You had to have known," she said, "besides, it's not like anyone can see anything."

"Not that," I said, and pointed to the bandaged stump where her right hand was supposed to be. "When were you planning to tell me that you'd lost your hand?"

"Oh," she said in a completely flat tone. "Completely honest I kind of forgot about it." I wanted to question how someone could forget that they lost a hand, but… "It doesn't hurt and it's gonna grow back, so really there's nothing to worry about."

"How?"

"It got caught inside Hookwolf while the rest of the team and I were robbing him," she answered matter of factly, "but he's in jail and I'm not so who got the last laugh?"

I exhaled and tried to calm down, just in time for more people to come in. Dressed in an odd outfit that couldn't decide if it was a dress or riot gear was a woman with a long black ponytail, accompanied by an obese, pale man with bits of spiraled shell stuck upon his skin, an orange boy with red hair and a tail wearing only shorts, both with matching "U" tattoos signifying that they were case 53s-the Boy's above his heart, the man's on his arm-as well as a girl in a green robe and striped mask and a girl in red and black with a gas mask. I recognized the leader as Faultline, but I'd admit that I'd lost interest in her group when I'd learned they were mercenaries who often operated outside of the city and didn't investigate further, preferring to prioritize the major gangs.

The ponytailed woman looked over all of the people who were standing, then looked at Tattletale in what I could tell even through her mask was a sneer. She began walking around the standing crowd to the group of tables. I noticed Tattletale tap Taylor on the shoulder and whisper something in her ear. I noticed her slip a bill into Taylor's good hand.

"Hey, Newter," Taylor said, "will five bucks buy a kiss?"

"...Yeah," the now named Newter said, "but it'll have to wait unti-" The orange boy was cut off when Taylor grabbed him by the wrist, swung him around, and open mouth kissed him right in the middle of the bar. The boy yelped, causing his employer to turn back and attracting the attention of the other gathered villains. I saw Grue palm his helmet when he thought no one was looking. Then Taylor released the young man, handed him the bill, stepped away, licked her lips, and then started licking her palm she'd held him with. The young man blinked. "What just happened?" he asked in a confused tone.

"I'dunnah, purple-ferret-man," Taylor said in a daze, "but-my hand'z goon! Gun. Gone, that za'one" Taylor was staring at the hand that she hadn't lost.

"Whoa, Newter, your spit must be some good shit," said the renaissance dressed boy-Regent. "I've seen her drink a gallon of LSD-like a literal gallon out of a milk jug-like it was nothing. Then chase it with a brick of hash and a tablespoon of raw heroin. Still, like it's nothing." The young man seemed so utterly serious. "And then wash it down with an entire bottle of whatever liquor she had on hand. Still, like it was nothing. Then she ate the bottle. Like, mild hallucinations at the absolute worst."

"The Merchants were so pis… piz… mad the day I stole that stuff," Taylor let out. Then she giggled, and then she noticed Gearshift. "Speaking of… sorry about throwin' that dumpster at you."

"Apology accepted," Gearshift said with a gulp. I noticed that she was inching away from the table and the still crowded entrance of the bar.

I sighed. "I'm standing in a bar full of supervillains and reformed supervillains. My fifteen-year-old daughter is naked in public, and she just kissed a boy who as far as I know she just met tonight. She is currently higher than a kite and has apparently picked up one hell of a substance abuse habit. Normally I'd have flown into a murderous rage right now, but after the last few months..."

"It's okay da'," Taylor said in a slur, "I only like him for his secreesh… sectrios… juices."

The young man, Newter, immediately placed himself behind the rest of his team. Apparently, he thought I was about to give him the shotgun speech.

I turned and with a sigh took a seat at the side of the collected tables so that I could see both Coil and Lung. Faultline took a seat one away from Lung, while the rest of her crew took to a booth behind her. The Undersiders, with Tattletale leading Taylor by the hand, took a booth opposite Faultline's group.

"Not you," Lung suddenly declared when Grue tried to take the seat next to Coil. He pointed past the helmeted young man towards my daughter. "Empress."

"I'm not the leader," Taylor said back from where she was sitting… with no trace of daze or slur. Tattletale smiled in Faultline's direction. "Grue is," Taylor continued.

"And Grue and the rest of the little shits would be dead if you had not interfered in my vengeance," Lung replied, "and I burned down the loft they hid in that night-they moved in with you, didn't they?" Lung didn't wait for confirmation, "You didn't join them, they joined you." Strangely, the girl in the dog mask, Bitch, nodded in apparent agreement. Lung finished the vodka he had and moved his mask back into place. "And they're only alive because you're more interesting than killing them is, how can you say that he's still the leader?"

"I think the fact that she defers to my authority despite what you say is proof enough," Grue interrupted.

"I wasn't talking to you," Lung said dismissively.

"He's right though," Taylor said in a display of loyalty, "I'm not the leader because I respect Grue and his authority, because he is still the leader, not me. Even if I wanted to be in charge, I'd probably just fuck it up, I've only been at the villain game for a few weeks."

"And a whelp is still a dragon," Lung said. "I know your kind, Empress. It's right there in your name. You won't be satisfied with a subordinate role forever." Lung looked directly at Taylor, ignoring everyone else who was present, and finished. "Skip the bullshit and take your place at the front now."

Taylor did not reply. She turned from Lung to the deaf waitress, who apparently was not aware of the tense discussion around her, and Taylor wrote something on the notepad the waitress handed to her. Only then did she say "You might be right," she said without looking at Lung, "But right now I'm happy where I am and I don't like you disrespecting my friend and teammate."

"I hope we're not interrupting anything," came a new voice, and several people turned to the door. I turned to look as well and saw a team dressed in various variations of red and black. A masked young man in a top hat, a girl with a sun motif, a heavily armored figure with a square mask, and what seemed to be a giant humanoid octopus in a black robe with a red mask, proportioned for a human, over its head but not obscuring its face.

"You weren't invited," Lung said after a moment.

"I invited them," Coil interjected. "The Travelers are a nomadic group who came into town just a few days ago. I figured it was only fair to let them know it was happening."

Lung looked at Coil in silence, then simply turned to face forward. With apparently no further objection, Grue took his seat. The masked young man with the Travelers took the seat on the other side of Coil. After a few moments of silence, where the waitress took orders and brought drinks-from the corner of my eye I saw Taylor lifting her teacup with a hand that wasn't there, without even seeming to realize she was doing it, and I smiled-Lung spoke up. "Now unless another uninvited guest decides to come in, that should be everyone..." I couldn't help but feel like there was a threat in that sentence. "I have called this meeting," the man said, "because I'm feeling generous. Thus, I think it's only fair to make sure that everyone knows that Kaiser has lost his fucking mind and the Protectorate is too busy hiding from a young girl or else cleaning up after her messes to do anything about it."

"Are you going to tell us something that we don't already know?" Grue asked. His tone was certainly professional, but something about his phrasing led me to believe that he was a bit put out at having been treated so dismissively earlier.

"I do have to agree with the young man," Coil added, "it's quite apparent that Kaiser has become obsessed with destroying Empress, but how is that anyone else's problem? I mean, she's certainly got the situation in hand." Trickster laughed at the perceived joke. He must have seen Taylor's bandages.

"You've certainly seen it, Bastion" Lung said without looking in my direction. "Every bit of Empire territory near the docks has seen increased activity." I'd seen it, yes, but… "The rumor on the street is that Kaiser has stopped selling guns, but guns are still coming into the city."

"We've seen increased Empire activity outside of their turf," Faultline added, "and we did see Night and Fog a few nights ago..."

"And my own sources say they've vanished from Boston," Coil continued, "and if they're back here in the Bay, that would mean that Purity-"

"Is working directly under the Kaiser once more," Lung said with a tone that indicated his displeasure at having been interrupted. Bakuda glanced between Faultline and Coil in what I assumed was a look of pity. "And if Purity and her old team are once more active within the Empire, then the bastards are preparing for war, and if you think he's going to stop with five children..."

There was a long moment when no one responded. "Okay," Trickster said, "I think that just maybe we came to this city at the wrong time." The young man stood up, his team following suit, and left without another word. From the corner of my eye, I caught Tattletale frown and then whisper something to Taylor.

"So, what is it that you want to do about it?" Grue asked.

"Nothing. If Kaiser dares to attack my borders I will fight him and I will win. Otherwise, I'll simply enjoy the carnage from afar." Lung said bluntly. "I'm more interested in what everyone else is going to do."

"We're mercenaries," Faultline answered. "We do what we're paid to do, and if no one is willing to pay we'll just hole up and wait it out. We only came to this meeting because Lung's messenger said there might be a job for us." She turned to the Undersiders. "And honestly I'm not buying that Kaiser will come after all of us when he's just gunning for one girl… Sorry kids, unless you can pay our fee you're on your own." Faultline didn't sound particularly apologetic.

"I suppose that I'll deploy my resources and protect my assets," Coil added, "but I doubt I'll employ my forces against the Empire directly. At least," he continued, "until I see evidence that Lung is right about the Empire escalating beyond his grudge with the Undersiders."

Everyone was looking at me and my group now. I thought about it. I wanted to come out and say that I'd have Taylor's back… but if the PRT had proof that I had contact with Taylor or direct knowledge that I'd aided or abetted a villain or "villain..." They might start treating me like just another gang leader, and that could jeopardize the situation I was in with the city and Guild and prevent me from helping Taylor in the future. I wanted to think that she was a big girl who could hold her own against Kaiser and his band of bastards… But she'd already lost a hand to one of them. What if she loses something more important next time? What if she's wrong about it growing back?

"I'm a hero," I said after a moment. "I can't be seen helping or working with villains. Even coming to this meeting is a huge risk." I sighed. "I'm sorry to say that I can't openly contribute to any war effort." 'not that it's going stop me from helping my daughter under the table or stomping Kaiser's ass as part of my "normal heroics" if I get the chance' I thought. Taylor was psychic and sitting next to a girl who can either read minds or easily fake it. One of them had to have picked up on my thoughts or at least caught my hidden meaning.

"Damn," Bakuda interjected. "The big bad Nazis are out for your mutant blood, and not even your daddy is going to help you." She looked right at Taylor as she said it. "That's gotta hurt."

For a brief moment, Taylor's eyes flashed with blue and purple light, causing the mad bomber to back up, but no one else seemed to have noticed. Whatever Taylor was going to say was cut off, however, by Lung speaking up once more. "There is… something that could be done. A bit of assistance I can offer. Protection. Training."

"Really now?" Grue asked.

"Not to you," Lung said dismissively. "Empress, you have… potential."

"Potential?" Taylor answered with apparent non-interest.

"You were able to keep up with my power for a good long while," Lung began, "and to be honest our battle was quite enjoyable-despite your… obvious lack of combat experience." I was beginning to get uncomfortable. "I let you live, those weeks ago, because seeing what you'll become is more interesting than spilling your blood." My fist clenched.

"Oh… Is this the 'join me and together we'll rule the Galaxy as blah blah and yadda' speech?" Taylor seemed so bored. "Are you going to use some metaphor involving some legend about a carp swimming upstream as part of your pitch?"

"No-"

"Besides, even if I wanted to 'trade up,' " Taylor said with one handed air quotes, "I'm not Asian. You can't tell anymore, thanks to the scales and armor that adorn my beautiful new body, but I'm as white as it gets. I'd never fit in."

"There's a legend in Vietnam, albeit a recent one," Lung began, "that involves a fire-breathing dragon. Leaving behind the cultural appropriation and fruit origin aspects of the legend, the important part is that once the dragon was slain the soldiers who did so ate it's flesh and gained a portion of its strength. I turn into a fiery dragon and you went from a twig to an Amazon after eating my flesh. That would be enough if I didn't suspect that there was more to it."

Taylor looked down at her own body, then looked back up. "You're laying the flattery on a bit thick. I bulked up, but I'm far from an Amazon." She started picking at her fangs with a claw. "By the way, a piece of one of your scales has been stuck in my teeth ever since." A lot of people were starting to look at Taylor like she was insane. To be fair, I was still coming to terms with her apparent lack of a cannibalism taboo myself, even knowing it was a zerg-influenced aspect of her power. "I fail to see how that changes anything, no matter what else you think there is 'to it.' "

"Why do you consume the flesh and blood of your enemies?" Lung asked. "The Dallon girl won't shut up about you drinking her blood and the rumor is that Hookwolf is missing a chunk of his arm following the thrashing you gave him."

"Are you going somewhere with this?" Grue interrupted.

"Answer the question, Empress" Lung said, ignoring Grue.

"It's part of my power," Taylor said. "When I eat something, I gain its properties."

"Or in other words," Lund finished, "My flesh is now part of you-meaning that part of you is Asian."

"You're stretching," Taylor replied. "Look, you see something in me you like and want to help? That's fine." She finished her tea, "but I'm not going to leave my friends. I told you, I'm happy where I am."

"And I don't appreciate you trying to poach one of my teammates," Grue said. "It's very unprofessional. As is not reprimanding your minion for speaking out of turn." Grue pointed to Bakuda, who in turn seemed to glare at him.

"You can't have Empress," Bitch said, speaking for the first time since the Undersiders arrived, "she's ours."

"If that offer of help was genuine," Grue continued as though Bitch hadn't interrupted him, "then you'll give it on our terms or not at all."

"Or I could just kill you all now for your insolence," Lung said a heated tone. Bakuda took a step away from the table.

"And break neutrality at a meeting you called yourself?" Grue replied, "are you prepared for the fall out of that?"

"He has a point," Coil said deliberately, "I'd have thought you would have thought of the rules before you went wagging your tongue, after your threat to mine earlier."

"And you're outnumbered," Faultline picked up. "Even discounting people without weapons or powers they can use in a fight right now, that's still eleven on three." She sounded angry. It made sense, she was a mercenary, they needed rules like the ones here to have any sense of legitimacy.

"Eleven on one," Tattletale corrected. "Lee and Bakuda aren't armed. In a fight on Lung's scale, they're dead weight."

"We've fought you before," Grue continued, "we only had trouble the last time because you got lucky. Every other time we fought, we either came out on top or got away unscathed."

"Unlike you," Taylor added, "I don't get weaker when the fight's over. I'm a great deal stronger now than I was at the end of our last fight, while you'd be starting from your base and scaling up to my level, and I do not appreciate you threatening or disrespecting my friends."

"And if you somehow managed to hurt her," I interjected, "I'd kill you and have your corpse stuffed to use a prop to demonstrate what happens to people who hurt my family." I hadn't planned for Kurt to slam an armored fist into an armored palm, but it punctuated my statement perfectly.

Everyone turned to look at me. "Are you sure you're a hero, Daddy-Empress?" Regent asked. "Because that sounded like something a villain would say."

"So, Lung" Tattletale picked up, "what would bruise your ego more? Starting shit at a meeting you called and getting your ass beat, or backing off when everyone points out that you've stepped out of line?"

Lung let out a deep, rumbling laugh. "You've all certainly got balls," he said. "There's still business to attend to" he continued in a deadly serious tone, "but it can wait until the dust settles. Lee, Bakuda, we're leaving." Lung stood and made for the door. "My offer still stands, Empress: Protection and training, for you and you alone, if you're willing to admit the folly you've made here today." And with that, the tattooed man left, his minions in tow.

Shortly after, drinks were paid for and people left. Soon it was just my group and the Undersiders. "About earlier," I began-"

"I caught what you meant," Taylor interrupted. I let out a sigh of relief.

"Standing up to Lung like that," I shook my head, "you're going to give your old man a heart attack."

"If you need a transplant, I've got an extra." I laughed at her joke, and she continued "honestly, Tattletale figured Lung was gonna try something like that, from the way the invitation he sent us was worded."

"So we rehearsed a couple of responses ahead of time, for what we thought he might try," Tattletale picked up, "though we did get thrown for a loop a few times."

"That bit at the end was complete improve," Regent added. "I don't know about anyone else, but I wasn't really expecting everyone to turn on Lung the second he got mad." Tattletale gave a noncommittal sound at that.

"But yeah," she continued, "in hindsight, this whole meeting was a pretense using Kaiser's hateboner as an excuse. Lung wants to know what Empress is going to turn into-I think he wants to fight her again-and this whole meeting was an attempt to learn more about her and either get her under his thumb so he can shape her growth..."

"...Or piss us off enough that we start shit and I have to fight every other villain in town at once and adapt to it," Taylor finished. "Which I think is why he let Bakuda run her mouth. Kind of backfired on him there at the end."

I made a mental note to prepare for a fight with Lung once the Empire had been dealt with. If that son of a bitch was going to obsess over Taylor like that.

"But it's getting late, and we've got more to discuss amongst ourselves," Grue said, "Empress, I know you'd probably like more time with your dad but..."

"I understand," Taylor replied, "I'll call you in a bit Dad."

I nodded and the Undersiders left.

"So," Gearshift said after remaining silent the entire meeting, "your kid's a drug addicted cannibal, and the two most dangerous people in town are obsessed with her?"

I sighed, "it's a long story."


	26. Furor 309

**Furor 3.09**

I stepped over an unconscious Empire grunt as I carried yet another sack full of prescription pain killers to be tied to Angelica, which I affixed right next to a sack I'd filled and marked earlier. Kaiser had surprisingly few guards posted at this "drugs and guns" hidey-hole-a warehouse full of large jars, bulk boxes, and crates. It probably had something to do with Dad. He and the Raiders had, well, raided a couple Empire hideouts over the last few days. He hadn't captured any capes yet, but from what he'd told me the last time he'd talked a lot of Kaiser's non-powered minions had been turned over to the police. The Empire must be spread pretty thin.

"How many non-powered people are there in Empire Eighty-eight, anyway?" I asked.

"Who cares," Reagent answered as he was holding up a large jar of pills, "all that matters is that I think we're winning. "

"I'm just… This feels too easy," I said, "I mean, we haven't run into any capes and Kaiser hasn't lost any since we rescued the dogs." In fact, I'm not even sure any Empire capes have been seen since the meeting at the bar… Though that might just be because I never leave the base, so they could have been spotted and I just haven't been there. "I mean, I don't think my Dad took down that many thugs, so it's not like the capes have to be moved elsewhere, so where is everybody?" I mean, Tattletale had said that this place had lighter security than other Empire Stash Houses right now,

"You're overthinking it, dork," Regent answered again. "This has got a bunch of syllables. My-co-something Mo-fe-something," he said, "what is it?"

"A drug I haven't adapted to yet," I answered. Regent responded by dropping the large jar into his own bag.

Bitch was prying the lid off a crate. "I thought they were keeping guns here." Tattletale had said that Coil would buy any of the guns we took from the Empire. He didn't particularly need them, she'd explained, but he could apparently resell them elsewhere. Unfortunately, for a warehouse that we'd believed would have firearms and illicitly obtained pharmaceuticals that could be used for my adaption or maybe recycled for tinkering in some cases….

"The only guns have been the ones on the assholes," Bitch continued. It was a bit odd, that we kept opening crates expecting guns and just kept finding more drugs.

"Tattletale \sometimes gets things wrong sometimes, it's not a big deal.," Grue explained, "It's not like the guns were a big priority, this is mostly just taking Kaiser's merchandise to see if there's anything Empress can use." And cost Kaiser some money. "Now does anyone have any idea why the Empire is moving so much HGH?" He was looking at the third crate in a row of the stuff. "I know there's probably a black market for it but it's not the first thing you'd think of when people talk about selling prescription drugs on the street. I can't see quantities like this moving very well." It was a bit odd. I guess it was useful for body building, I think, but we hadn't found any anabolic steroids here, either.

"Yeah." Other than the pain killers nothing here seemed that likely to sell on the streets of Brockton. Even the pain killers were things like prescription strength versions of over the counter medicine, not opiates. Everything else was hormones and crap. I mean, I don't think Neo-Nazis would sell therapeutic estrogen and testosterone on the black market, but there'd been some here. "It's almost like nothing they keep here is that valuable in their eyes." I mean, I knew they had better stuff. I'd gotten most of my drugs from the Merchants but I'd scored some prescription opiates from the Empire once or twice. Honestly, I'd never heard of half of this shit before. "But none of it is stuff I've used before so… Wait a second."

"Oh. Shit." Grue had realized it too.

"What?" Regent asked.

"I don't exactly keep it a secret that I adapt to everything that happens to my body," I began explaining, "and assuming that Kaiser isn't stupid, he's probably done his homework on me since we took down Hookwolf. This stuff here… it's not exactly the kind of prescription drugs that usually get sold illegally, but it is all stuff that I haven't taken yet-it's stuff that might not be that valuable to Kaiser, but stuff that might be valuable to me."

"In other words, it's bait. Kaiser set a trap for Empress," Grue finished for me, "and we walked right into it. Empress, that bag you marked…"

"Full of stuff I can use to get my latest secret project done faster."

Grue nodded, "Then everybody, finish bagging what you've got, we're getting out of here before the entire Empire comes down on us."

Tattletale came out from a side room that we'd assumed the Empire grunts were using as an office. She was stuffing a stack of papers into a manilla envelope. "Guys, someone high up at Medhal is in on this. Once we take out Kaiser we could probably extort a small fortune out of Max Anders and his..." She took one look at us and realized what Grue and I had. "Well, shit."

"Exactly," Grue answered. Acting quickly, we all finished affixing what we'd already taken to Angelica, Brutus, and Judas and climbed aboard the dogs to get the hell out of dodge.

We managed to get out and get a few blocks away with no problem. "You sure it was a trap?" Regent asked from where he rode behind Grue."I mean, nothing's happened yet. Maybe it was just a shitty..."

I didn't catch what he said next because I sensed danger. I tapped Bitch on the shoulder and she whistled, causing the dogs to suddenly stop just in time for the street a few feet in front of us to explode in a flash of light.

"...I'm going to shut up now," Regent finished. Bitch mumbled about that being a miracle.

I scrambled off of Brutus and turned to see a figure with brightly glowing white hair in a white costume floating in mid-air. Purity.

"Get out of here," I said to the others. I could tell from her feelings and from how the blast had hit the ground that Purity had been aiming for the Brutus, Bitch, and me, not all of us. Even then, it didn't she cared about Bitch, so that meant that she was only gunning for me.

Grue began to say something, but I didn't catch it because Tattletale shouted over him: "No! You are not going to do the stupid self-sacrificing thing." Bitch looked ready to add her own protests but I cut them off.

"She is literally only after me! Just go!"

Bitch suddenly made some kind of signal and the dogs took off, bounding around the blasted part of the street. Man, Grue felt pissed. I wasn't looking forward to the conversation we'd be having later.

Purity landed behind me. Not too close, not enough that she couldn't get back in the air before I got to her, but it was still odd considering her attempt at sniping me a moment ago. "That was pretty noble of someone like you."

"Cut the crap," I replied, "we both know you're only after me. Keeping them out of it is just common courtesy. It's the least I owe them." I turned back to look at the blaster. "You left the Empire." At least that's what I'd put together from comments about her at the meeting. "Why come back just because Kaiser's throwing a fit?"

"I have everything to gain from killing you," she answered and I suddenly felt something flicker across my psychic senses, a name, something important, "and everything to lose by refusing."

I nodded. "So," I asked, "who's 'Aster?' "

And then her face contorted into a snarl as she flew into a rage. That's what I'd hoped for, that was the kind of important it felt like. In hindsight, however, I probably should have expected her to blast me at point blank range.

After exhuming myself from the rubble of a warehouse I'd been blasted through and shaking the cobwebs from my head, I noted that Purity's blasts were not quite lasers. Kid Win's lasers had burned. Purity's blasts hit like a truck.

I got my bearings and took note of the situation. Purity was back in the air. There were a lot of warehouses and other similarly sized buildings in the area, but from here I couldn't tell if any of them were inhabited or not, so jumping from roof to roof after her or using them for cover wasn't an option yet. I had to jump a few yards to avoid another blast. I only ever seem to get emotionally exhausted after big fights and-Oh hey, a larva finally spawned. No, I needed to focus on the task at hand. Maybe I could wear her down with attrition? Or, a fight between me and her is bound to draw attention-I dodged to the right. Maybe if I hold out long enough the PRT will show up and I can run away… but then they might bring the foam. I did not think this through.

I jumped and rolled forward to dodge yet another blast. Afterward, I took a minute to check the scales and carapace on my torso. My rib-armor was cracked, just slightly, and shifted ever so much when I prodded it. Now that I was aware of the damage, I could more easily feel it mending but that Purity could damage it at all after everything I'd been subjected to… I didn't need to win. I just needed to last long enough to get away, so a few more hits shouldn't be too big a problem.

I jumped and dodged and danced up and down the street to avoid more and more blasts while Purity flew back and forth over the street, out of my reach. The street was getting pretty torn up, maybe I could toss a chunk of debris at her and knock her out of the sky? I found a large chunk of asphalt that had been blasted loose when Purity had tried to sneak attack us. I grabbed it at my first opportunity, then after another minute of narrowly avoiding Purity's assault, I was able to chuck it at her. She proceeded to blast it to pieces.

I was starting to realize why exactly Purity had been sent to kill me. She was deadly from far outside my range, and it was at this time that I wished that I had a spike-launcher or a psychic laser or something other than throwing debris on the ranged combat front.

Okay, I couldn't fight Purity like this, and I was kind of an idiot for trying to. I was basically just running around like a chicken with its head cut off right now. By now I was pretty sure that the buildings were empty, so I jumped and rolled past an other blast and ducked into an alley between a warehouse and what might have been another warehouse.

There was a dumpster about halfway through the alley to my right, so I hopped onto it and used it to get a boost to jump and climb on top of the one I knew for sure was a warehouse-I hope the owner doesn't mind a few claw marks-and then I flipped backwards into a leap towards Purity's emotional aura just as she began flying above the alley. I'd planned to tackle her and grab on…

...But her reflexes were better than I'd thought and I was blasted over the building and back into the broken street. I had yet to adapt to Purity's surprisingly solid blasts of light, and it hurt like a bitch. I was starting to wish that I had a power with less raw… power to it and more versatility. Like telekinesis that wasn't just a pulse. Or energy constructs. Hell, I'd even take something like bug control-in particular, a swarm of bees would be pretty useful right now-if it meant my strategic options were more than variations of charge and hope for the-

She blasted me again and I'm pretty sure the impact to my chest stopped one of my hearts. I flipped over and start to push myself back up and another blast hit me in the back-I heard my carapace crack, but I couldn't feel it… I'm not sure if that was a good thing or not. The blast had forced me down and I'd hit my nose on the ground and now I was now bleeding pretty badly from it.

I was seriously starting to wish that I'd thought this through better. I had managed to turn back over and sit up to face Purity just in time to see another one of her blasts heading for me. On instinct, I closed my eyes and threw my hands up… Then I heard something that wasn't me exploded and opened my eyes to see shattered rubble just floating in the air between Purity and I. I moved my arm a bit to the right, the rubble moved likewise. I thought about it moving to the left and after a second it moved back to where it had been… Oh, this? This changed things considerably.

Purity was staring at me and the debris between us in what felt like shock. I took the opportunity to stand up and, now that I knew where they were and how big they were, flex my telekinetic muscles a bit-I lifted up a good chunk of asphalt that Purity had blasted from the street earlier, a chunk of wall from the building I'd been blasted through earlier, and part of a beam from the same. Okay so the pile of rubble from Purity's blast seemed to count as one thing, but… I could keep everything up and once, but stuff kind of got wobbly if I focused too much on one thing. I kind of pushed and sent the rubble flying forward towards Purity. The flying, glowing neo-nazi was shaken from her daze and quickly flew up and over the flying debris, but it seemed that three objects were easier to control.

The Blaster flew past the floating chunk of asphalt, so I pulled it and after a bit of spurting if flew right into the back of the white-clad villain. Purity was knocked for a loop but managed to keep airborne, and my control over the chunk of wall and wooden beam became better still… I hmm'd. I was a bit curious about something. I brought the piece of wall slowly to the ground near myself and stepped onto it, carefully, to see if it would hold my weight. When I was sure that the bit of broken wall wouldn't crumble beneath my feet, I put a bit of focus on it and lifted it up and-Oh, I was going to have fun with this later.

With my makeshift hoverboard, I flew up to Purity just as the other villainess was able to right herself. I brought the wooden beam from the warehouse up next to me and set it spinning, the slow "whump whump" providing ambiance. I had to close my eyes-looking at her glowing form from this close hurt, but I think it helped me in this case "Do you want to keep going?" I asked the woman, "because I'm just going to keep getting stronger and you're going to run out of energy before I do and if we keep fighting after that point… Well, this 'Aster' has clearly got you concerned about something and I don't think you being dead is gonna help with that."

I felt a twinge of fear and-there it was again, that feeling I got whenever I was reading someone's mind. I grabbed onto it and I wasn't letting it go because God damn it not being able to do it at will was irritating. I grabbed and I pushed and… Oh. Well, Lisa was going to be disappointed.

I opened my eyes again and forced myself to look right into hers. "Look, Kayden," there was a hint of shock in her aura, "I'll cut a deal with you. If you take Aster and Theo and get the fuck out of my city, I'll let you leave unharmed, because honestly if I can get one of you bastards out of my tendrils without beating the shit out of them first I'm all for it." I made the wooden beam speed up just a bit. "Or I could kill you now and they'd go back to their dad. I'm sure you'd hate that." I gave her a wide, toothy grin to punctuate that, and felt both fear and honest consideration coming from her. Then I noticed something. "Think it over quickly, there are about four people coming and-" one of them suddenly speed up considerably. A ball of light passed right by me, turned into a blond woman in a white and orange costume, who then produced a sword of light and stabbed it into my abdomen. I lost focus on my telekinesis and fell to the ground as the woman flew past Purity and turned back into a ball of orange-yellow light. Moments later, the second of the four approaching presences, a blond young woman in a white dress-Demolition Dallon-flew over me, looked down, I sensed a burst of terror from her, and then she charged after Purity, who'd taken off as soon as I'd gone down.

I took a second to assess my changed situation-there was a hole in my abdomen that kind of burned, so my pain response had come back a bit, and I couldn't feel my legs… A quick check revealed that I was bleeding from my back and my front. "Don't move!" came a masculine voice from behind me, I turned as best as I could to see a man in white and green holding a ball of light, flashbang, with Panacea a safe behind him. The entire Dallon Branch of New Wave had come to crash my fight with Purity.

"I can't," I replied, "your psycho wife cut my spine." Flashbang did not respond and it was a bit weird. There was a touch of apathy undercutting all of his emotions… It made them hard to read, kind of like Alec's, but not as scary and wrong.

"We've already called the PRT," Panacea added, "there will be an armored transport van here to take you in soon." Amy Dallon's emotions were more interesting. They felt a mix of fear, pity, confusion, loathing both self and otherwise, and something else that I couldn't quite place but that made my skin crawl. "If you promise not to run I might be able to reattach your spinal cord."

I rolled my eyes. She was probably counting on how I'd reacted to her specifically at the Bank as insurance that I wasn't going to hurt her, but did she really think I'd just stay put long enough for them to turn me in?"Are you going to have a panic attack and question my humanity again?" No response.

I could feel Glory Girl coming back. "Purity got away," she said as she landed. She felt like she was lying, and I could pick up a taste of concern in her. Every so often I felt a twinge of terror from her-I think she was looking my way each time she did it.

So there we were, for a few silent moments, and then Brandish returned. She just felt angry. The heroine walked up to where I lay prone and placed the tip of one of her hard-light blades so close to my nose that I could almost feel it. "So, that's where your daughter gets it from."

"Shut up." The cape-mom said in response.

"No, seriously," I said, "instead of stabbing the Cape blasting up the street, you stab the one trying to convince her to leave."

"You're the bigger threat, and you can take it better than she could." Brandish answered. "Besides, Purity isn't the one who traumatized my children."

"Gee-gee started it." I answered, "if she hadn't hurt Bitch, I wouldn't have had to show her what happens to people fond of excessive force."

"You're not one to talk, are you 'Empress,' after what you've done?" She laughed bitterly. "The agent whose arm you ripped off-

"I keep telling you people, that was an accident!" God damn it, I tear one arm off, by accident, after weeks… or was it months? After a while of being hunted like a dog…

Brandish ignored me. "And the way you brutalized Glory Girl and the Wards-especially Aegis

"That was also an accident."

"Yeah, keep saying that," Brandish said, "everything you did was an accident. I'm sure that'll go over well at trial"

"Okay, once I learned he was okay it was deliberate, but that was his fault." Seriously, if he'd just stayed the fuck down and let my friends and I go. "Besides, he could take it," I said, echoing her own excuse back at her.

"And I've heard that you ate part of Hookwolf."

"And part of Lung," I added, "and if you're counting just blood I've also eaten part of one of the armored porn stars that Kaiser has, not sure which one, and some of Barbie over there." Well, not in that order. "So far, I think I prefer dragon meat over white supremacists and dumbasses."

I felt disgust bloom up in Brandish, turning her anger into revulsion. It wasn't a pleasant tasting emotion. Then she looked me dead in the eyes. "You're awfully relaxed," she said, "considering that your spree is at an end. I mean, between the violence you've committed, your rampage at Winslow, the narcotics you're known to have stolen away with for who knows what purpose, how strong you're getting… Your similarities to The Siberian-"

"Wait, what!?"

"Cannibalistic nudist with a high-end brute power," Bradish said in a condescending tone. "All you need are the stripes." I glared back up at her, she was starting to legitimately piss me off now. "All of that, and how you've managed to weasel out of trouble so far… You'll be lucky if you don't end with a one-way ticket to the Birdcage."

Something, something about the dead seriousness in her tone chilled me. Those assholes would do it, too… So I felt out and tried grabbing her the way I'd grabbed the debris earlier. Her eyes widened and she began radiating shock and fear as she was lifted from the ground against her will. And then I threw her. Hard. Brandish went flying up and away at high speeds-I saw her turn back into a ball once she was far away, and Glory Girl, radiating panic, flew after her with a shout of "Mom!"

I still couldn't feel my legs, but at some point, a tightness in my abdomen had formed and the bleeding stopped. I tried to flip over and push myself up just in time to see Flashbang, clearly radiating fear and anger, toss his ball of light at me-I lifted my arm, leaving one to support my weight, and threw a chunk of debris to block it. The ball exploded, closer to him than to me, and I noticed Panacea was knocked back by the blast. She must have run up closer when I threw her mom. Flashbang seemed to be immune to his own power, so I had to push him over myself with another flex of my psychic muscles.

And then I pulled myself as fast as I could out of the ruined street. I'd memorized the storm sewers, I had to since that had been my main way of getting around, and there was an entrance in the next street over, if I could just get down there without anyone in New Wave seeing me then I could get back to the lair and… damn it! Apparently, my spine was one of those things that took a long time to heal and my limp legs were dragging behind me. Oh god, it was going to take hours to get home.

I'd managed to get to the other street, and pulled myself to a grate that could be pulled up with special machinery or by anyone with superhuman strength-and slip in before the remaining two Dallons recovered. I kind of… fell into the storm sewer and landed on my back. It had rained the other day so the sewer was nice and wet and I could kind of slide and push myself along. After ten minutes of that, I stopped and tried to think for a minute. I was getting tired. I couldn't sense anyone else down here, so I think I was safe, but I was getting tired. Half my body was dead weight and I didn't have anything I could levitate on.

I had to wonder if I could levitate my body just by myself. Flying… being able to fly under my own power would be cool. I tried it out, to try and get a feel for my own body but… maybe if I applied a consistent amount of force below-I crashed head first into the roof of the sewer tunnel. Okay, less force… and maybe some above me just in case… Fuck, that wasn't working either… I can't help but think this would be easier to figure out if there was more urgency.

Eventually, I managed to kind of sort of get up off the ground, my limp feet were treading water a bit, and after some trial and error, I was able to kind of push myself along the tunnels until I made it back to the entrance of my lair.

I could sense the others. They were in my room. Once I no longer had the framework of a sewer tunnel, my makeshift levitation power didn't quite work anymore, so I was back to pulling my way around with my arms. The other's turned to me and Rachel immediately came to my aid, the brutish redhead doing her best to lift me up and support my weight. "You look like shit. What happened?" She asked.

"New Wave crashed the fight," I explained, "Brandish is an ass, lightsabers burn like hell, and now I can't feel my legs." I could sense anger building in her. "Don't worry," I said to cut her off, "I'll be fine as soon as I get the Cocoon up and running. Did you bring the bag I marked?"

"It's on the table," Brian said, "but first we've got to talk." I noticed that Angelica was down here, and she was still fully ramped up… that was odd.

"Look, about earlier," I said, "I'm sorry for sending your off. It's just… She was only after me, and I don't want you all getting hurt for my sake, not after what you've done for me." Alec looked like he'd wanted to question something but Lisa raised a hand to cut him off.

"And we need to talk about that, too," Brian said, "but I meant that we need to talk about those things." He pointed to my hatchery, where a pair of larva-great big maggoty centipede-like zerg-were crawling around, feeding on creep and making a sucking sound, not unlike a boot getting stuck in the mud. "That… Is a step up from your other bugs."

"They're not done yet," I said, and raised a hand to fully plug them into the hivemind. They glowed and shimmered with the blue of my psychic aura and then their senses became mine. Then, I gave the order for them to metamorphose into their mature forms-one a drone, the other zergling. That part would take a bit though, so once they'd entered their pupal phases I turned back to the others

"...You know that you have to be very careful with something like this, right?" Brian asked. "The PRT doesn't like Masters or Tinkers who make living things like this, not after Ellisburg."

"I know," I said, "I looked into it as soon as I could. They can't breed on their own and the hatcheries only produce Larva when I set them too. As long as I don't spawn like a million at once we shouldn't be in any more trouble than we already are." As an afterthought, I added, "Besides, I'm not planning to show them off to just anyone for a while yet."

The larva I'd set to become a drone hatched into a long bodied, membraned leg-winged, crab claw equipped worker-zerg. I smiled and had it float over to my table, where I'd set it to work organizing the drugs we'd taken and put into my specially marked satchel-drugs that I could repurpose to help finish the Cocoon. The drone smiled, with a face only a mother could love, at the same time I did

"Look, I trust you," Brian said, "but your stunt earlier… I'm not sure I can trust your judgment right now. Sometimes it doesn't seem like you're thinking things through, or..."

"What Brian is trying to say-" Lisa was cut off as the second gestating larva exploded into a pair of six-limbed, quadrupedal, half-lizard-half insect zerglings. Each of them flexed their weaponized third set of limbs, and one looked at me with a tusky grin… I blinked, it was a bit weird, having so many clear views of the room at once. "Why did that one hatch into two?"

"I have no idea," I answered. It sounded like something to ask Sarah the next time I saw her. "I'm… not gonna spawn many more of that specific one until I know."

"...Anyway, what Brian is trying to say, and I agree with him on this," Lisa continued, "is that if you're to make more than a handful of these things… or if you're going to make more things like them, then for the foreseeable future you should probably run it by either me or him unless it's an emergency or something. It's not that we don't trust you," she said, "it's just that you're playing with fire here and we want to make sure that you're thinking things through."

"Because earlier… and a few other incidents..." Brian was hesitating, almost like he couldn't quite figure out what to say.

"Sometimes, it's like you don't trust us." Lisa said. It felt that this was what Brain had been trying to say… a bit more bluntly than he was going to try to by the feel. It kind of hurt.

"Wha-what do you..."

"Okay, that wasn't the right way to phrase that," Lisa said after a moment.

"No, it wasn't," Brian picked up, "Taylor, we're a team, but sometimes you act like you're still alone. Sometimes, you do things without talking to us. Earlier… If you'd just said "I'm the brute, I'll hold her off," that would be different, but you unilaterally decided that we shouldn't be involved." He sighed. "To be fair, if we had talked about it, it probably would have ended up the same, but still. Just… If you make a mistake, if something you do goes bad, and the rest of us are in danger? Or if you get in serious trouble because you just went and did something without consulting us… Just, for now, it's like Lisa said: Talk with one of us before you make more of those." He gestured to the zerg. "You didn't say they'd be that big."

"That sounds fair," I said, "and I'm sorry". They were my friends, I trusted them… I think. At least, I wanted to. "I think I can get the Cocoon done by tonight and I'm going to need to get that done soon."

"Well, since I don't think I'm needed I'll leave you to it," Alec answered and left. Brian, Rachel, and Lisa stayed with me as I made the drone do what needed to be done-mix a few stimulants with a few hormones and a calcium supplement I'd already had on hand, mix that with some crushed beetles and creep for biomass, and pour that down a shoot in the base of the structure, and so on and so forth in different combinations of different hormones and stimulants and within an hour I had a translucent, human sized chrysalis slowly filling with a clear goo that, if I'd done it right, would speed my evolution and regeneration processes along a bit.

I stripped the bandages from my stump-they'd been more so that I wouldn't have to look at the bone coming out of it than anything else, anyway, and asked the others. "Could one of you do me a favor? Keep an eye on me for a little bit. If… If it looks like I'm struggling or drowning or trying to get out of it, get a knife and cut me out." I'll admit it. I was afraid. After the locker… and the foam… and that trick with Vista's power at the bank, I was afraid of getting into such a cramped space, but I didn't have much choice if I wanted my hand back anytime soon.

"Don't worry," Lisa said, "we will. But relax, you made it, so it's not going to hurt you."

Once the Cocoon was about half full I climbed in through the open top-my legs still weren't working, so Rachel and Brian had had to help me up and into it. Then the top closed after me and I was sealed inside. My nerves were acting up, but I could feel Rachel and Lisa and Brian and even Alec upstairs. Hell, I could see them, through the eyes of my zerglings and drone and guard-bugs. I could feel my zerg too, more intimately than I could sense the others… All of these presences, there was something comforting about them and after a moment and one last deep breath I let the warm goo cover me and fell into a relatively peaceful sleep.


	27. Furor Interlude 3

**Furor Interlude 3**

Rune checked the time. A minute to go before the big mission, by her watch, though Fenja was the one who'd call it. Her cousin, Othala, was right behind her and Fenja was with them to the right, with a dozen armed men behind them, the last of them coming out of the nondescript vans they were coming out of as they prepared for their assault.

From what she'd been told on the way, a friend from outside of the Empire had told Kaiser that the PRT was secretly moving Victor, Hookwolf, and his crew outside of the city tonight and that they were moving in eleven minutes. Rune, Othala, and Fenja had an important job-they had to provide a distraction, to draw Protectorate attention away from the transports so that Kaiser and all the others could more easily spring their captured compatriots.

She'd tagged a piece of asphalt that had been... acquired from somewhere, and a car that they'd stolen. Othala would make her invincible, and then she would carry herself and Othala on the asphalt. Then her car and Fenja's great size and strength would be used to absolutely wreck a big building. Othala thought the CEO of the company who owned it was a fag or something, but what it wasn't wasn't exactly that important. They'd start wrecking the place, then one of the men they had with them would use a burner phone to call the PRT and tell them that the Empire's capes were destroying a building-the so called heroes would show up, and then she and Fenja and the men would fight them until they got the call that the mission was successful, and then they'd retreat. From what Rune had heard when the older members of the Empire had spoken, their friend had just asked for some help in kidnapping some bitch in payment.

They weren't the only distraction a couple more were going out to commit random violence against assorted undesirables.

Rune didn't say it out loud, but she felt that the distractions were needed. Purity was supposed to be doing a raid down by the docks, but when they'd all set out for this there had been no sign of the woman, and as far as Rune knew nobody had seen hide or hair of Krieg since Kaiser had asked him to get in touch with their friends in Europe. At least Night and Fog were still with them.

Fenja gave the signal and grew to her full size. Othala worked her magic upon her cousin, and Rune brought them up into the air and prepared to hurl the car... only for it to be blasted away by what seemed to be a loud shout.

All three present Empire capes turned down the street and saw a lion-helmed gladiator rapidly approaching with PRT vans following on his heels. How!? Had they been spotted? Oh, shit, was that retard Schuster here! Had he been given the phone!? Rune quickly turned and... no, nobody down there with an arm in a sling... So why the hell were the heroes here so soon!? Had they been set up!?

They were upon them soon enough and in an instant, Triumph had been joined by the mouse-helmed warrior woman bearing her sword and shield, who proceeded to... point, at the other end of the street and then wave.

Rune twisted her head again and swore loudly. Off in the distance but coming in fast was a pair of military looking vehicles shaped like something that the mutant-slut's father would build, followed by a truck that looked like that race-traitor meth slut's work... and the truck was hauling something big.

Rune heard Gunshots and turned back. The PRT's grunts had piled out of their own vans and deployed their foam against the armed men that the three Empire women had brought with them. One PRT Officer was on the ground, but otherwise… Fenja, too large to be foamed, turned and prepared to turn her massive sword against Triumph, Mouse Protector, and their minions as half a dozen soldiers in bulky powered armor emerged from Bastion's transports, as had the drivers, Bastion and what looked to be that gamer duo. Rune had heard that they were playing at being heroes now and-shit! Leet and Uber had all kinds of flying cameras for that show they did, had they been the ones who spotted them... No, wait, the blue bitch's father hated the PRT, he wouldn't have called... Then the huge thing that the truck had been hauling stood up, the street seeming to shake under its weight.

It was a giant robot. A huge tank on two sturdy legs, with two big ass guns for arms and four more on its back, clad in thick red and silver armor. "Do you like it!?" Shouted up Bastion's modulated voice, "It's called the Thor! We figured you Empire bastards would appreciate it!"

And from behind Rune, Othala spoke up for the first time since they'd came out on the job. "Shit."


	28. Furor 310

**Furor 3.10**

Okay, being a hivemind was weird. It was like I was asleep… but not asleep at the same time, except when the Zerg I'd spawned were asleep, that is. Sarah had explained that it was probably because my Zerg-based psionics weren't fully developed yet and that it'd feel more natural once that part of me was more mature, but for now, I'd have to deal with the weird sensation. She'd also explained why larvae that metamorphosed into zerglings split into two. The reasons were a bit surprising but they made sense in context. Seeing what the zerg in my room were seeing at the same time I was in dreamland with Sarah was weirder than just being asleep and awake at the same time though.

I'm not quite sure how long I'd been in the Cocoon, but Rachel and Alec had slept a few times and Brian's emotions had changed a lot… I should probably get a clock down here. While my main body was out, I'd spawned three more drones. I kept one down here. Two were sort of patrolling the semi-abandoned bit of sewer, as extra security, while I'd set the fourth to digging. I wasn't fully sure that I needed more space, but having a backup hive made sense all of a sudden.

However long it had been since I climbed into the Cocoon, I was starting to wake up now. It started with an electric feeling down my back, a tingling in my feet. My fingers twitched and I clenched my fists. My eyes flew open and I was fully aware of my body again. The Cocoon began to drain, the top opened up, I climbed out, and…

...Fell to the floor and started coughing and retching in order to get the goo out of my lungs. That… I'm not sure why, but I'd expected something dramatic. After a few minutes, I was able to push myself back up and… everything felt right. No pain or numbness or anything. I looked down to my newly regrown hand and flexed each finger-everything seemed to be in working order.

I also noticed that my scales and carapace were shinier than they were before I went into the Cocoon, even accounting for residual goo. After double checking that I wasn't going to trip the second I took a step, I walked over to my mirror. I think I was a little bit taller, and my muscles just a little bigger, but not by much. My boobs hadn't gotten bigger this time, but I'd grown a sternum of carapace that grew up from my ribs to meet my collarbone. It was hard to tell because of the scales, but I think my belly was more toned than it was a week ago. A quick turn showed that my back carapace now resembled ribs in the same places that the front did. The spine plates were a bit more defined, but the spikes were unchanged. Weird. I think I had carapace pauldrons, or maybe shoulder pads? Regardless, something smooth and roughly spade-shaped was extending out from my carapace and an inch or two past each shoulder. I looked back to my regrown hand and started testing it, clenching it, flexing it, grabbing my fingers to see how far they'd bend back before it started hurting, and in general just testing to see if I'd grown a good replacement hand. I was double-jointed in all fingers now. I tested the other one just to see, and when I'd seen that the upgrade had spread, spent about ten minutes checking to see exactly how flexible my various joints were.

"Well," I said to myself, "that's going to make climbing in and out of... sewers" Wait, was that my voice? There was an echo or distortion to my voice now. That would take some getting used to.

Then I noticed that, excluding my zerg, I was completely alone in the building. Or, that I was still alone in the building. The others, even Rachel, left on their own from time to time, but… something felt wrong.

I closed my eyes and felt out for any of the others. No one, not even one of Rachel's dogs, was here… or even anywhere near here, and-wait.

One of my patrolling drones spotted someone in the storm sewers, and they weren't city maintenance workers… Five men. Each with a rifle, and dressed in the colors of the local band of S.S. rejects. And heading right for where the sewers lead into my room.

They were looking back among themselves at the moment so they didn't notice my drone yet. I capitalized on this and had it charge at them while loudly snapping it's sideways jaws and hissing and gurgling in an echoing fashion.

All five neo-nazis snapped to attention at the loud charge of a floating, six eyed crab monster screaming at them. One of them screamed like a little girl, said something about "face-rape" and "xeno-eggs" before he turned and ran. The other four, being braver or perhaps having not watched the same films as the runner, turned their guns on the drone and fired. I almost laughed at the effort, drones may not have been made for combat but zerg armor was far too durable to take anything but superficial damage from ordinary rifles. That, and they were all firing in a panic, so their accuracy was shit.

I set off down the sewer tunnel to meet with my drone and the attacking Empire soldiers as they wasted bullets trying to kill it, but left my zerglings behind just in case there were more coming from some other direction.

Seeing that their bullets were useless, the remaining grunts turned to run. Three got away, but my drone managed to catch and hold onto one of them. Up close, I saw that the man had a satchel of some kind, and I had my suspicions of what was in it.

I was a little faster now than I was before, I think. I'd been trying to walk slowly, to keep calm, to where the last little nazi was pinned, but I still ended up getting there faster than I thought I would. The way my drone had the man held, he was able to see me coming and… yeah, I'm pretty sure he pissed himself. I ignored it as I approached and took the bag from him, cutting the straps with my claws to take it from him, and looked inside.

"Let's see, we've got some bricks of something..." I poked one- 'claylike. We've got some thin wires, and are those blasting caps?" It was a rhetorical question. "You bastards were gonna try and blow me up with C-4, weren't you?" I don't know how much C-4 is a lot, but the contents of the bag were mostly bricks of plastique explosives, so…

"Please don't kill me!" the man begged, "It wasn't anything personal. I'm… I'm not even racist, I only joined because they were paying good money to guard stuff and my grandma's insurance won't cover her heart medicine!" I tried to get into his head and read his mind… I mean, it should be easier now that I've done it on purpose once, and… and he was telling the truth.

"Okay, here's what I'm gonna do." I rotated my left hand at the wrist, just a few revolutions, then pointed at the man. "I'm going to ask you a few questions. If you answer truthfully, and I'll know if you're lying," I gave a pointy toothed smile, "I'll let you go… this time. I see you in Empire colors again..." the man quickly nodded in agreement. "Why are you down here? How did Kaiser know where to send people?"

"I don't know," the man said. I glared at him, and he backtracked. "I don't know for sure," he corrected, "but there are some rumors… About somebody from outside the gang trading information to Kaiser for favors."

"And what do the rumors say this person is?"

"There's a couple," the captive young man answered, "uh… I think the general idea is that it's a thinker-one of those ones who can see the future, I mean. But nobody agrees on who it actually is, except that whoever it was started talking to Kaiser just after, well… You and your friends took out Hookwolf." My prisoner squinted, as though wracking his brain, and I wracked his brain as well, seeing his mental image of each rumor as he said it aloud. "Um… one rumor says that it's somebody from Europe, Gesellschaft or whatever they're called. Another says it was a woman with a nice hat, another says it was a guy from the PRT, and one says that it's some guy that your dad pissed off, and he's trying to get you killed in revenge." He breathed deeply and I started seeing things that were highly unlikely. "Then there was one guy insisting that it was Allfather's ghost, but we're all pretty sure that he's on drugs, so..."

"You're rambling," I said with a touch of annoyance.

"Sorry… Um… However Kaiser knows," the man said, "he knows more than that… He knew that you were sleeping, he knew your friends would be out… And where they'd be. He went after them, personally… And once he's done the whole Empire's gonna be at your house to finish you off."

I took a deep breath of my own. "I believe you." I sounded calm, but on the inside I was raging.

The young man let out a sigh of relief. My drone dropped the man, who quickly scrambled away, and I turned and swiftly walked back to my lair, my drone following behind me. As I walked, I set my hatchery to start producing more larva. I'd need them. I also had a call to make.

 **Long Live Empress Taylor**

I was chewing on a block of C-4 as I stood on the stoop that led into the apartment building that we'd repurposed as a lair. At first, I'd wanted to go after Kaiser myself, but as I thought about… I had no idea where the others were or where they'd gone. The man believed what he told me, but was he told the truth? It didn't matter, this was a pretty secluded neighborhood and most of the buildings were abandoned, so me standing on the stoop wouldn't alert anyone in particular to where we lived even if it wasn't getting dark, though that didn't matter much anymore, and as for Kaiser… He was coming here to either pull my corpse from the wreckage or finish me off… I got the feeling that he'd come around to the front for the drama of it when he saw that the building wasn't blow up… assuming my friends hadn't kicked his ass and sent him running, which… Well, he wouldn't be stupid enough to hurt them until he knew for sure I was dead.

So I'd wait for him to come to me. C-4 tasted weird. I'd heard that soldiers in Vietnam would sometimes eat a little bit of it to get high, they'd get a buzz like they were slightly drunk, and then they'd get really sick. I wasn't feeling it. Still, I'd started eating the brick, so I finished it.

My eyes in the sewers caught movement-Brutus and Angelica were running through a tunnel back to the lair. Alone, at normal size, with no sign of Judas or Rachel or the other Undersiders following behind. That's not a good sign…. I swore. If Kaiser had… I had a drone open some doors so that the two dogs could get up to Rachel's basement kennel.

The sun was setting when I started to hear a commotion in the distance. I stood straight, affixed what I hoped was a calm but stern expression to upon my face, and waited just a bit longer.

The man I'd interrogated had been right, it seemed. I didn't quite know how many people were starting to crowd around, but if I'd been told that it was every unpowered member of E88 that wasn't in prison, I'd believe them. In the back, I could see one of the armored playboy models-not sure with one, growing to her full three story self. As she grew, the crowd parted a bit and the capes stepped out-A man in armor with a spear, a woman in a plain black costume with a cowl, hood, and cape, and a man in a matching plain gray outfit. Crusader, Night, and Fog. The couple's emotions were just as wrong and scary as Alec's.

A few moments later, Hookwolf-looking fresh from a prison escape and with bits of metal poking out from where I'd claimed my pound of flesh-emerged, followed by some grunts who were dragging my friends and-was that the leader of the Travelers? What was he doing, bundled up with my friends? He was conscious but… yeah, I don't know what's up with him but I'm not trying to read his mind anytime soon.

Tattletale and Grue were out cold, they'd all been roughed up a bit, Regent's mask had been removed at some point-lost in the fight, maybe? Regardless, he had an uncharacteristic look of concentration on his face. I reached out to him with my psychic sense and… Okay, that fits quite well into my plan. As for Rachel… She was awake felt sad, angry, and scared… No sign of Judas. Hookwolf seemed smug about something.

Finally, a man in an intricate full suit of armor stepped forward, the fading light of the setting sun glimmering off of the crown of blades that adorned his helmeted head. "We meet at last, Empress," Kaiser said with feigned politeness, "or perhaps, since we all know who you really are, I could just call you by your real name?"

He didn't want to call me by my chosen alias, not after going to war over it. The man's emotions reminded me of Shadow Stalker for some reason. "You can call me Taylor," I answered, "if I can call you Max."

Apparently, Purity never told him I read her mind. He was surprised but quickly got his emotions under control. "You know why we're here and what this is about." It wasn't a question.

"You're going to offer me the chance to trade my life for theirs'," I answered. It was obvious really, "but considering you lied to Purity about giving her full custody your kid, I can't really trust that you'll hold up your end of the deal, can I? I don't see her here by the way."

"I'm shocked and offended by your accusations," the man replied calmly but with a tone that told me that I'd hit the nail on the head. I rolled my eyes.

"Anyway," I continued, "trying to attack me in my home-thanks for the C-4 by the way-and threatening my friends..." I made a point of articulating my right hand as I spoke. "That's the stupidest and most self-destructive thing I can think of, Kaiser, and that's coming from a girl that huffs roach spray."

"You can't take anything seriously, can you?"

"I've really only got two responses to idiots pissing me off," I said, "I can snark or I can rage." Well, that wasn't strictly speaking the truth, but those were the only two I could do that wouldn't…

"I can't decide," Kaiser began, "if you're simply a naughty child in need of discipline or more a mad dog in need of putting down." He laughed. "Perhaps both?" He waved his hand and more of his soldiers moved to where my friends and the suited guy in the red mask were being held aimed their guns at the back of their heads. "You have five minutes to decide whether you die alone or if you're taking your friends with you."

I looked up to the sky. Where was it? Was it here yet? There! "You know, Mr. Anders, I'm going to bet that a lot of people saw you all coming this way-I mean, even if you all split up on the way here, I have to imagine that an army of armed Neo-Nazis all heading to a single location… Yeah, there's really no reason to keep this place a secret anymore, is there?"

His emotions shifted. "What are you-"

I pointed towards one of Leet's flying cameras floating just above the street as I cut the man off. "I called my Dad before you got here-wave to the camera asshole." Kaiser looked up in surprise. "By the way," I continued, "I asked for them to send the one with the best mic they've got, so by now all of Uber and Leet's subscribers have heard that Medhall CEO Maxwell Anders is Kaiser the Neo-Nazi asshole."

"That's against the rules!" Kaiser said in a rage as he turned back to me, the hypocrite.

"So was attacking me in my home," I replied, "and before you give the order to kill my friends in a retaliation, I'm gonna explain two reasons for why it was so stupid of you to do this." I gave the widest, most shit-eating fanged grin I could muster. "Number one, I'm a power enhancing Trump. Number two, Regent is a human controlling Master."

And just like that, lightning shot from Regent's fingertips, held at his side as they were, out towards the firing squad. Each of them convulsed for a moment, and then twisted and put bullets in the heads of the thugs holding my friends still. Five exploded heads, five thugs fell to the floor… I'd feel bad about that later.

I'd explained about Sarah and how my power affected other people's powers and stuff, once we'd all gotten back at the lair after the fight with Hookwolf… Well, after I'd gotten my stump bandaged, fully calmed down from everything that'd happened, and convinced the others that I was alright. They'd been a bit… uncomfortable, when I'd explained about dreaming about Sarah, but the boosts to everyone's powers had been hard to argue with. Regent had practiced a little bit, and it turns out that his shocks had been the early stages of psychic lightning development. It reacted in interesting ways with his body control power.

I reached out with my psychic muscles and pulled my friends… and the leader of the Travelers-up to the stoop with me. It was then that I realized that my control had gotten a little better while I'd slept and I made a note to experiment with that when I had the time.

"Are you okay?"

"Not really," Regent replied, "does that healing pod work on normal people? Because my ass is kind of sore from the kicking it got." I think he was being a smart ass.

"Kaiser killed Judas" was the only thing that Rachel said.

I clenched my fist. "Get the others inside before Kaiser recovers from his shock. Mr. Mask and Suit-

"Trickster," he interrupted

"Trickster, stay out of the basements and please don't run out on us before it's time to recap what happened when I was asleep. Bitch," I said, "Brutus and Angelica made it home safe, they're down stairs." Well, that cleared up some of her fear. "And um… If Grue or Tattletale wake up before we're done, tell them I'm sorry."

As my friends and our guest fled inside, the three waking one's carrying the other two, Kaiser snapped out of whatever Regent's sudden display of nerve controlling psychic lightning and made a spike of steel erupt from the street with great speed, heading straight for Rachel's back. I placed myself between her and it and took the sharp tip right into my recently armored sternum. The metal shaft was stopped dead and everyone else escaped inside. I got an impression of smugness from the man as he pushed the lance forward, making more spikes and blades emerge from it in fractals, twisting around me until I was trapped in a solid shell of steel with spikes and blades trying as hard as they could to push through my scales and carapace to pierce my flesh.

Then I built up a small charge and unleashed my telekinetic pulse hard enough to shatter all of the steel into large chunks of shiny, sharp, silvery confetti, which I quickly grasped with my more fine-controlled telekinetic powers and shoved straight down to the ground.

"If it's any consolation, Kaiser," I said calmly, "you've provided me with some much-needed minerals."

The Leader of the Empire seemed to be considering his next move. So I gave him something more to think about.

"Did you honestly think I'd call myself an Empress, Kaiser, if I didn't have an empire?"

And then I gave the mental command-there were several manholes and sewer grates on this street and near by and with my command the Zerg I'd spawned pushed or tore them away to climb up into the streets. The men before me panicked as I got an all around view of the assembled neo-nazis, and soon the street was flooded with a four dozen zerglings and two dozen drones, growling and hissing and clicking and in general appearing menacing.

"They're called The Zerg," I explained, "they're really interesting, you see. Armor and bones that are harder than diamonds and stronger than the finest steel. Claws and fangs sharpened to a point finer than anything man made..." I laughed. "I'd only ever intended to make a couple of them-things to guard the place while I sleep and a few helping hands, you know, peace of mind since I was technically homeless until a few weeks ago, what with being chased away from my home within hours of triggering." It was petty of me to bring that up, I know, but it just kind of came out. "But then I found out that all of E88 was coming to kill me, so I figured 'why not?' "

Thugs were starting to panic. Crusader summoned several ghostly replicas of himself and a similar aura about himself, and Hookwolf turned into a mass of whirling blades and leaped straight at me. I held out my hand and tried to push him away with my telekinesis, but instead, I ended up grabbing onto him and holding him in place… I made a note to not repeat my rescue of the others from earlier until I was more practiced with my telekinetic powers.

I lifted my hand, with Hookwolf forced to follow, and aimed over the horizon in the direction of the Bay. Then, with an effort of will, I sent Hookwolf flying like a rocket off into the distance. "I hope you don't mind me uninviting him from the party, but I really don't want to lose a hand right after I got a new one. I mean, I don't think he could cut me a second time, but still."

"I hope you know that you've signed your own death warrant," Kaiser said with satisfaction. "The Protectorate doesn't think highly of Tinkers or Masters that create creatures like that, not after Ellisburg. Even if we fail here, they'll kill you for this."

"The zerg don't breed," I answered factually, "I have to create more of them manually, and kill orders only apply to people whose creations can reproduce the way Nilbog's do in this situation." Like I was going to give those fuckers another excuse. "Anyway, Kaiser's the only one of you I'm interested in right now." I had my zerg open a path. "Anyone who wants to run can… but fair warning, My Dad and his men will probably be all over your asses soon, so..."

Just about all of the unpowered thugs, save for those that Regent mastered, immediately took off running. Night and Fog looked at each other and then walked off after them. Not very Loyal to Kaiser, I guess, but I had been told that they'd retired when Purity did last time, so… I counted to sixty a few times, but the giant porn star didn't seem inclined to flee. Crusader, on the other hand, took his ghosts back into himself and took off flying on one of them at near literally the last second.

With just two Nazis instead of an army of them, it was much easier to tell their individual emotions apart… Both of them were fucking pissed. Kaiser gave some signal and the giantess flew into my swarm…

The giant was more difficult to fight head on, she'd even managed to kill a couple of the zerglings with her giant spear, but I had plenty. I managed to swarm around her feet and with a few from behind jumping to push into her calves, the fell forward, shaking the ground as she landed. My zerg, easily moving out of the way prior, quickly engulfed the downed giant and were more than able to keep her down by clawing at her in the right places.

Leaving me with just Kaiser to deal with. To his credit, he was smart enough to summon a barrier of metal between himself and I-a curved dome that also shielded him from the zerg pinning… Menja? Anyway, he threw up the barrier and ran.

I jumped up and over the barrier, and when I started to fall I pushed off of the dome with a burst of telekinesis, shooting me past the fleeing neo-nazi leader. I flipped in the air and landed on my feet, facing him and greeting him with a wide, toothy grin.

"You're not going anywhere, Kaiser."

The man backtracked, but before he could turn I got a good psychic grip on him and held him up. Then I drove my knee into his groin. He wheezed.

"That," I said, "was for Judas." I held out my hand like I was going to karate chop him and quickly split the shell of his armor with a swift strike. I dug my fingers into the slit I'd slashed open and pulled, filling the street with the shriek of splitting metal and levitated a helmeted Maxwell Anders out of Kaiser's armor, which I let fall to the ground.

"You know, Max," I said, "you should probably take a page from a certain other Kaiser's book and abdicate." He didn't reply.

I could hear engines in the distance. This was the part that I was dreading the most and-The firing squad was doing the Thriller dance. Regent, wearing a replacement mask, and the guy from the Travelers were back out and sitting on the stoop. I walked over to them, taking care to walk around the corpses from earlier.

"How are-"

"Bitch is down stairs with the other dogs," Regent said without waiting for me to finish. "Grue and Tats are still out cold, but that's because Hooky somehow got them into sleeper holds… Grue's head hasn't been in the game for a few days, it's not like him to leave himself open like that."

"Wait, why would Hookwolf put them in sleeper holds?"

"Because Kaiser wanted us alive, I guess," Regent said with a shrug. "I mean, why kill the hostages before you've made the demand?" That made sense, but something seemed fishy. I got the impression that asking Kaiser wouldn't get me the answer though, from the way his emotions felt… and he was kind of still wheezing from a moment ago. I guess it didn't matter much anymore.

"Okay, and you?" I asked while gesturing to Trickster.

"I was in the neighborhood and couldn't just let a big group of capes and thugs beat up on kids," he said. "My team and I have been on the wrong end of that situation a few times. Now, my team doesn't know where I am, so if I can..."

"Yeah, the Protectorate is going to be here any minute so you might as well." The sudden shift in Trickster's emotions, as hard as they were to read, was almost comical as he swiftly made his exit.

"You don't buy that, do you?" Regent ask.

"Nope, you?" He shook his head in response. "Do you want to get back inside, I mean, the Heroes are gonna be here any minute now."

"I'm good."

So, I waited. Menja? The giant had shrunk down to normal and curled up into the fetal position, so I stopped the attack. Instead, I had a drone drag her to the middle of the street. I floated Kaiser over and dropped him on top of her. A few zerglings surrounded them to make sure none of them got up and tried to run. A few more drones started retrieving the bodies of the zerglings that the giant managed to kill. I'm not leaving those around where people could get a hold of them. Following my lead, Regent made the people he'd mastered assume the "surrender" position. On their knees, hands on their heads.

The PRT arrived en-mass just as all of that finished. Several vans armed with sprayers for that damned foam were accompanied by Velocity in his red, racing striped costume, Assault and Battery in their own red and black with blue circuit patterned costumes on the ground and Dauntless in his gold and white armor with his white, lighting looking boots and spear with matching shield up in the air. Mouse Protector with her helmet, sword, and shield teleported in just and Armsmaster and Miss Militia appeared on their motorcycles, and Triumph in his lion armor came in as PRT Agents piled out of their vans… also, I think there were ambulances in the back. They'd sent the whole team, just about, for me and for Kaiser and… I tried to swallow my fear.

I made all the present zerg turn to face the heroes. Miss Militia responded by transforming her weapon into a large, advanced, and complicated looking rifle and aiming it dead at me-the dot from the laser sight appearing on my sternum.

"Are you going to kill me," I asked of the heroine I used to look up to.

"Are you going to make me?" She asked in reply.

"I'm willing to be reasonable if you'll be, for once." I took a breath to calm myself. "Also, I feel the need to point out that you were just caught on camera aiming a deadly weapon at a teenage girl who had yet to take hostile action against you. If you want this to end in anything other than a fight, I'd drop the weapon."

"What happened to being reasonable?"

"I feel that defending myself from an unprovoked attack is a reasonable course of action," I explained, "as is asking to not be threatened while talking."

The next few moments were tense. I could feel all eyes on me-Triumph especially seemed to be contemplating me carefully.

Finally, the woman in fatigues lowered her weapon, it changing from a gun to a relatively harmless pocket knife.

"Okay." I said when she had, "I'm going to propose something." I moved the zerglings so that they could get Kaiser and the woman that I think was Menja… And to the bodies. "What I want most of all is for you all to stop hunting me like an animal for a non-existent rampage I supposedly went on," I said in the calmest tone I could manage. "I think that we all know that your psych profile on me is a load of horse-shit, and we all know that none of what's happened in the last few months wouldn't have happened if those agents hadn't chased me away from my home. Right?"

Nobody answered me.

"Look. Just take the Nazis… and the bodies… sorry about that, life or death, them or us, I'm sure all of you have ever been there or know someone who has, right?" Oh God, I couldn't keep my voice straight. Armsmaster was one of the most versatile tinkers in the world and was working on stuff specifically to take me out. Dauntless… He was constantly getting stronger and everyone suspected that he had the potential to rival the Triumvirate. Miss Militia could probably pull a gun that could hurt me out of her shape shifting weapon, and Velocity, Assault, and Battery were all faster than I was-Velocity especially. If I screwed this up, I was dead. Or worse.

"Dork, don't apologize for what you didn't do… Or at all. Villains who apologize make the rest of us look bad." Wow, thanks Regent for lightening the mood. "I killed the assholes, not her… Well, I made other assholes kill the assholes. The Dork's a Trump, I've got body-jacking lightning now, in case you weren't watching the stream. She was right about the 'us or them' part though."

"...You're just pulling new powers out of your butt, aren't you?" asked Mouse Protector. "Your power isn't that you keep getting stronger, you're just that kid on the playground who's playing capes and his power is all the powers." She turned to Armsmaster. "Do we have to fight her? I mean, I was watching that stream before I teleported in, I'm pretty sure that she's thinking 'meh, I can take them' right now, and she probably can. And honestly," she continued while looking back and forth between herself, her fellows, and me, "can we just offer her a job? If she can take making people trip and spasm and give that body-jacking lightning, I kind of want to see what she can do with some of the powers we've got on tap. I mean, she's obviously controlling the things she made. What are the chances that she's a Teacher-type Master too?"

"No," Armsmaster said, "as much as I'm sure we would all like to avoid a needless fight here, the situation is far too complicated to just 'offer her a job' right now, and regardless there are… problems with offering any villain, especially an underage one, a job just because we don't want to fight her and she has a useful power."

That… Was that a good thing or a bad thing? I couldn't read him, he was still giving off interference somehow, I couldn't tell what he was thinking or feeling.

"For the record," I said, feeling braver than I had a moment ago, "unless you've got a pocket full of presidential pardons- for me and my friends-to go with those job offers," plural, "there's not much chance that I'll work for you."

"Fat chance of that happening," Regent added, "Even if they actually did it, I can't see Bitch in the Wards and just sitting around looking pretty would bore me to tears."

"That too," I said. Honestly, the chances of me working for the PRT… Barring something very, very big, that ship had sailed when the Director went on the TV and called me a monster.

I could feel some of the heroes starting to get annoyed.

"Look," I began, "like I said, I'm willing to be reasonable if you are. All I want is to be left alone… Just take Kaiser… The Zerg can't breed, I have no interest in founding New Ellisburg, so if any of you are worried about that… Just… Leave me alone-no unprovoked attacks on my friends and I, in fact, if the PRT could just avoid this street and the ones around it that'd be great, I can handle any crime here and turn the guys over, and…" I had to remind myself to breathe. "And if you leave me alone, I'll leave you alone. That's reasonable, right?"

"That's not any of our calls to make," Armsmaster replied, "and-" he was cut off by a PRT agent-a squad leader, I think-tapping him on the shoulder.

"There's a situation back at HQ," the agent explained as the blue-armored hero turned to him. The agent was gesturing to a radio he was carrying.

Armsmaster did… something and… "What's the situation? ...hmm ...um hmm ...Right." He stepped forward and turned to face the other heroes and the agents. "Arrest Kaiser and the rest of Empire Eighty-eight and claim the cadavers, and as for you," he said as he turned back to me, "believe it or not, something more important than you has come up, so I guess for now you'll be getting your wish."

I let out a sigh and immediately hoped that he didn't catch it.

"However," he continued, "this isn't over. This is just a respite. The second you, or one of your friends, or those… things step out of line," he clenched his armored fist. "If you really only want to be left alone, there are only so many ways you can get a life like that. We'll be watching you."

Kaiser and Meja were picked up and handcuffed, Paramedics or whoever it was that was in the ambulances loaded the five corpses into body bags and dragged them off, and Regent, from the looks of it, released his control of the firing squad just in time for them to be taken as well. Soon people started leaving, though the Protectorate were the last to go-Triumph had been staring at me the entire time, contemplating something. It was unnerving. Armsmaster returned to his motorcycle and drove off last, taking the time to turn back and look at me one final time. I counted out five minutes and started doing breathing exercises. Another minute and I looked up and checked the flying-camera. It was still there. I waved goodbye and a light that had been on it blinked out and it began flying back towards the dockyard.

"You okay?" Regent asked me.

"I think I will be," I said, "after I go throw up. Now, let's go get Rachel and see if we can figure out how to explain what just happened to Grue and Tattletale."


	29. Furor Interlude 4

**Furor Interlude 4**

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 **Topic: Empress**

 **In: Boards ► Brockton Bay discussions**

 **Bagrat** (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)

Posted On Apr 15th 2011:

There's a lot of news about "Lilith" today, enough that she needs her own thread. I don't have much time, so I'm just going to lay out what my contacts have been able to give me. I'll fill in more details later.

First, she's with the Undersiders now. [Link]

Lilith calls herself Empress. For whatever reason, the PRT has decided to retire the Lilith code name and call her by her chosen pseudonym. [Link]

Empress claims to have been forced into villainy by unjust persecution from the PRT and has acted in ways that make them believe that their psych profile on her is less than accurate. ENE is weighing their options and considering their next move, but central is kind of mad at them. [Link]

The tentative A-classification she was given after that video of her fighting Lung popped up is for real now. Apparently, Empress is a less-murderous mini-Crawler. [Link]

 **(Showing page 20 of 20)**

 **►Tinker_Girl_2000**

 **Replied On May** 6th **2011:**

Void_Cowboy: I'm only eleven, so… Yeah. We wouldn't want to give people the wrong idea.

Anyway, I've been without a computer for a bit so I skimmed the last few pages. Have I got this straight?

1: Regent has lightning powers and is a stronger master than before, and Empress claims to be a Trump who makes powers stronger.

2: Her regeneration let her grow a new hand.

3: She has full-scale TK, can use it to kinda fly, and might be for-real psychic.

4: She can spawn or grow biological monstrosities now.

Do I have that right? Because… I know she's a "bad guy," but that's really neat!

 **►XxVoid_CowboyxX**

 **Replied On May** 6th **2011:**

Tinker_Girl: Yeah, we should probably forget about hanging out then, but I still think you should visit the Bay sometime... As long as it's not swarming with monsters.

And yeah, that sounds about right.

PS. You missed an argument about whether or not New Wave were secretly allied with E88. Seriously, even I think that theory was crazy.

 **►Tinker_Girl_2000**

 **Replied On May** 6th **2011:**

Void_Cowboy: I'll ask Daddy about it, but I think I'd have to whip a few things up first.

The city does seem like it would be so much fun.

 **►XxVoid_CowboyxX**

 **Replied On May** 6th **2011:**

Tinker_Girl Whip a few things up? Are you a real Tinker?

Why don't you have a verified Cape badge?

 **►Tinker_Girl_2000**

 **Replied On May** 6th **2011:**

Void_Cowboy Yes, I am.

You have to send in a picture of yourself using your powers, and Daddy doesn't want me sending pictures over the internet.

Besides, it's not like I'm a hero or anything. I just Tinker for fun... Or sometimes for safety. You would not believe how many times I accidentally cut myself before I cooked something up to stop that.

I'm gonna talk to Daddy about visiting Brockton Bay sometime soon, but I heard that something happened to ENE's PRT Director and it had something to do with Empress. What happened?

 **►Agent Plissken (Verified PRT Agent)**

 **Replied On May** 6th **2011:**

Tinker_Girl_2000: Director Piggot suffered a mild heart attack on the day that Empress and Kaiser had their final confrontation. She's expected to make a full recovery, but Deputy-Director Reineck says that a specialist is being assigned to fill in for her, due to the... sensitivity of the situation here in ENE.

That's all the PRT is at liberty to disclose at the moment.

 **►Mouse Protector (Verified Cape)**

 **Replied On May** 6th **2011:**

Tinker_Girl Check your Private Messages, I sent you some things you might be… interested in.

 **►Sumgai**

 **Replied On May** 6th **2011:**

Um...Okay, I don't live that far from the docks. I just saw one of those crabby looking ones carry a guy in Empire Colors right up to one of Bastion's Raiders and hand him over.

 **►Specific_Protagonist**

 **Replied On May** 6th **2011:**

Somebody got a hold of Leet's video of that sexy, sexy mutant and her monsters kicking Nazi ass and cleaned up a few clips of it-God that's hot. [Link]

User was banned for this post

 **►Tinker_Girl_2000**

 **Replied On May** 6th **2011:**

Ooh! Those "zurg" things sound so cool!

 **►Tin-Mother (Moderator)**

 **Replied On May** 7th **2011:**

Specific_Protagonist: Empress is 15, this is your tenth inappropriate comment about her and twentieth total in just the last week, so enjoy your two-week ban and try not to be a creep when you get back.

 **►Psycho-For-Senior**

 **Replied On May** 7th **2011:**

Good fucking riddance to bad garbage, and good on her Imperial Highness for deposing that other, lesser empire.

 **►Leet (Verified Cape) (Gone Legit) (Bastion's Raiders)**

 **Replied On May** 7th **2011:**

Sumgai: Guy was an Empire True Believer, one who wasn't very bright, who Empress had met a couple times… He got caught trying something, and she gave him to us as a middleman to turn him over to the authorities on her behalf.

By the way, the recording of the other evening has been… edited, to deal with some of the… complications of the incident involving the guys who were holding the Undersiders down and the people who were meant to execute them… You know, for legal reasons. The relevant edits have been made and the video is now archived on our website. The ad revenue from that specific video will for the foreseeable future go towards the "Get the boss's kid a lawyer" fund, so if you Want Empress to be able to come home to her Daddy please watch, like, and share because the guy we're looking at does not come cheap.

 **►Mouser101**

 **Replied On May** 7th **2011:**

The fuck is wrong with you people? She's the bastard spawn of Crawler and Nilbog being raised by Ziz and the Siberian! They need to kill the bitch before the city is overrun!

wagthedog I know this is late but I don't care that Hellhound didn't look like a serial killer for the little bit of video she was on, she still killed like, five people. Also, learn to English.

 **►Tinker_Girl_2000**

 **Replied On May** 7th **2011:**

Void_Cowboy It'll be a while, but Daddy says that if things go well we'll be able to visit the Bay. It's gonna be so much fun, and maybe we'll even see Empress. The whole family is excited to come!

Psycho&Mouser Don't swear. It's rude.

End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 18, 19, 20

 **Long Live Empress Taylor**

Things had started going downhill a few weeks ago when some pervert hacked her PHO account. She should have known, when she found out, that it was a sign.

Around that time, she'd noticed that some of the victims running around the school didn't seem as afraid of them anymore, some of the hangers on were not so cozy with them as they used to be, and she thought that she'd seen Veder talking with one of those guys who'd been snooping around just the other day.

All of it had coincided with a certain little bitch going from the city's latest boogie man, spotted maybe once a week, to some big shot who made the news every other day-and a lot of it wasn't exactly bad news. Well, not bad news for her. It was kind of bad for them, the but the bitch was just walking around the city like she owned the place.

Then the bitch pulled a bunch of monsters out of her ass.

The other two were in denial. They believed that nobody would find out what they'd done, that the bitch wasn't stupid enough to come after them, they just had to stick to the plan. Bullshit, she'd been there when Emma ran, she knew how terrified she was. She wasn't going down because of them. She thought about it, and she decided to do what she had to do to save her own skin.

She'd laid the tears on thick when talking to her Daddy, and now she had a lawyer just in case-not that she wouldn't take jail over the inside of a monster's belly-and all that was left to do was make the call. The people from the Mayor's office had provided a number and a set of instructions-people who were scared to come forward could give information anonymously, but that wouldn't help her now, would it?

The phone rang three times before it was picked up. "Hello, mayor's office, what is your business?" asked a woman on the other end.

"I have a tip about the situation with Taylor Hebert.."

"Hold please."

She took a deep breath and prepared herself, as she counted the seconds, for what she had to say and how she had to say it. Nearly half a minute later a man's voice called out. "Hello, you've been forwarded to the THI line, what is your tip?"

"I'm sorry," she said in a voice filled with a well-practiced fear, "I know this is for anonymous calls, but I don't feel safe saying everything over the phone." She breathed, hard, and continued, "I need to meet with someone in person."

"Why is that? Are you in danger at this moment?" The man sounded both confused and concerned.

"No," she answered, "Bu-but they'll know if I tell you..." She took a sharp, audible deep breath and finished. "Look, my name is Madison Clements and I know who put Taylor in that locker."


	30. Lull 401

**Lull 4.01**

I stood there, staring at a precious prize, when Tattletale, standing next to me, asked: "Why are we just standing here?"

"I'm trying to decide," I answered, "if I should try and see if they'll sell me beer."

The blonde rolled her eyes in an exaggerated fashion so that it could be seen behind her mask. "I swear, when we get home I'm staging an intervention." She then grabbed me by the collar of my tank top and dragged me away from the local mega-mart's liquor aisle. I sadly waved goodbye to Miller and Budweiser, the dear friends I made during my time of solitude, as a lone drone pushed the grocery cart behind us as we left.

...Yeah, the whole thing was a bit I'd decided to act out. We needed to reduce fear and do some damage control after the Zerg were revealed, and, well, joking around kept me from freaking out at being out in public again. Especially after… No, I've got more important things to do. Today's mission: Grocery shopping! Something completely mundane and normal, something that everybody did… That, and those of us living at the lair needed groceries, Rachel couldn't shop, and Alec was a lazy bum.

Other than one vaguely familiar looking guy from the parking lot who ran screaming when he saw the floating drone, public reaction had been more or less the same as last time-though most of the fearful looks were directed at the drone, not me… Though some of them were less fearful and more gawking, which probably had something to do with the red wagon we'd tied to the back of it. To be fair, if I wasn't controlling it and hadn't made it I'd probably be scared too. Still, that people were staring at the floating crab-spider-thing pushing a shopping cart instead of at me was a comfort.

We'd already picked up most of the essentials-bread, milk, eggs, soda, easy to cook food, metal thumbtacks, drain cleaner, and the like when we turned into the pet aisle. "What kind of treats does Bitch give her dogs?" I asked after casually hoisting too large bags of kibble into the cart.

"I don't know," Tattletale answered, "besides I don't think we'd be able to get enough for all of them without a second cart." She looked thoughtful for a second. "I think there's a bulk-club store halfway across town where we might be able to get some, but I'm not sure if they'd give a membership to known villains… Well, maybe. It's something to check out later."

"I guess. Which way is the snack aisle?" Honestly, Alec would probably bitch if we didn't come home with chips or something. About halfway there a teenage girl I didn't recognize, someone I'd ignored because they weren't feeling anything… aggressive that I could pick up, randomly came up and hugged me.

It was only for an instant, and she didn't say a word before she let go and left, but…

"Someone you know?" asked Tattletale. I shook my head in response. Tattletale hmmed and we continued on.

Ten minutes later, with a Zerg propelled shopping cart full of edibles, the two of us began heading for the registers when my friend tapped me on the shoulder. "Heads up, we've got company."

Tattletale pointed back down the aisle we'd just been in. I looked back and, instead of the squad of PRT troopers I'd expected, I saw the hero Triumph walking up the aisle. He'd swapped his normal lion helm for a slightly thicker and more concealing variation at some point since I'd last seen him. He stopped when he noticed that I seen him, and just started staring at me. Honestly, it was kind of creepy. I reached out with my senses but ran into some kind of interference-whatever Armsmaster had been doing to jam my senses, he was sharing it with the rest of the heroes now.

The hero and I just stared at each other for a minute before Tattletale took me by the arm and dragged me up to a register. Apparently, lines move really fast when there's a pair of supervillains and their pet monster in the queue. I wasn't paying much attention, once things were moving. The drone would be an awkward fit into the register line, so I had it move off to the side and around-that this let me keep an eye out in case Triumph or someone else snuck up behind us was a bonus.

"I'm not gonna say we haven't done anything bad," I heard Tattletale explain to the somewhat frightened woman working the register, "I mean, there was the bank, and even before that we did some low scale robberies and some muscle work. But we're not bad people," she continued. "Some of us really didn't have a choice. I mean, my father found out about my powers and immediately decided 'A mind reader! Something I can abuse and exploit for financial gain.' and Empress here..." The blonde placed an arm on my shoulder. "By now, I'm sure you've heard how nothing Empress did was really that bad until someone who should have known better scared her away from her home and into the streets." Okay, I had to admit that Lisa was beating a dead horse right now. I think by now, everybody had heard the story and formed an opinion on it, but at least the register clerk wasn't having a panic attack. "And really, you would not believe the lies they've been telling about Bitch-Er, 'Hellhound,'" she said with emphasis on the air quotes. "You know how it is, you do one little thing, and then you either have to escalate or you're fucked. I mean, you've probably seen the news lately, right? If that's what happens to a celebrity that fully cooperated, what do you think happens to people like us?" I flinched.

Things moved smoothly and as normally as possible all things considered, Triumph only observed, and after some trial and error with my drone, Tattletale and I were riding said drone, which was carrying most of the groceries-some between its claws, and some in the wagon tied to it's back-back to the lair… Or, well, to a tunnel that led down into the storm sewers. It might be pointless, but I didn't feel comfortable going straight to the apartment building on the surface

"Are you okay?" My companion asked.

"You already know the answer, don't you?" I then realized that I was hugging a bag of groceries. "No. I'm, I'm." I gulped. "I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. They've backed off, for now, but..."

"You're honestly afraid that they'll nuke the city just to kill you," my friend continued. "Most of the things you can do to protect yourself and others from that will make it more likely that they'll think you're a new Nilbog, and you're pretty sure that nothing you say or do will convince them that you're not a monster." I nodded. "They're not gonna… Look, I know that things are scary from where you're sitting… Honestly, you probably could have handled the 'Empire's bearing down on us' thing better, but… This isn't like the Canary trial, Taylor. Someone getting screwed that hard takes a lot of people all trying to screw someone together. That's not happening here."

Canary, real name Paige Mcabee. A singer with the power to influence people's emotions, she had been arrested after she told her ex-boyfriend to go fuck himself and he got seriously injured trying to. The whole trial had been a sham, and she'd been convicted and sentenced to imprisonment in what was basically hell on earth for what anybody with half a brain could tell was an accident at the worst. The new hole in the wall in my room was all the proof that was needed to show that I had a… strong reaction to her conviction.

"You know, getting to the 'cage from Boston means she has to come right through Brockton Bay… Especially since the Birdcage is likely where Kaiser is heading..."

"What are you..."

"If that blatant screwjob has honestly got you so upset," Tattletale said as her eyes twinkled menacingly, "We have options… Hell, most of them aren't even illegal, because I'm pretty sure her conviction was."

"Huh?"

"And worst case scenario, well…"

"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" This was crazy. They'd just had this talk with me about doing stupid stuff like.

"I'm not promising anything, we'll have to talk it over with Grue, but… Call your dad when we get back. I've got ideas but we'll need his help. Besides, talking to him will probably do you some good."

I closed my eyes and thought it over… I didn't answer and instead kept my eyes closed and felt out for any sign of hostiles or people following us. I didn't find anyone, but I kept looking until we got home.

 **Long Live Empress Taylor**

"I love you too, goodbye." I ended the call. When we'd gotten home, Lisa had informed me of what she was thinking. She'd said she'd have to talk to Brian before anything… _Major_ could be done, but… I'd asked Dad for help and he was going to call his friend in the media and try to arrange something on his end.

I couldn't believe we were going to do this. It was… Okay, I needed to calm down. We might not even do the crazy part.

I went over to my workbench, where I'd been running a little experiment with some rats I'd found in the sewers and… shit. On my desk were four purple cocoons, three of which were empty, and what used to be a rat. From the mid-section up, it still looked like a rat, except for the six yellow eyes and the purple carapace around them. From the bottom of the ribs down it was covered in a misshapen purple carapace and six malformed and spider-like legs where the rat legs normally would have been, with no tail. The yellow eyes had been glowing before, but apparently, while I was away the infested rat had bitten one of its still normal legs off and bled to death, extinguishing the light. I think that counted as a failure.

I was debating on whether or not I should eat the rat to reclaim its essence or just throw it out when I felt company coming down the stairs. I turned just in time to see Rachel come down with Angelica behind her.

"Hey," I greeted. She grunted in response. "What do you want?"

"You gonna start working out again?" Oh, that's right. Rachel was the one who usually sat on me when I was doing pushups. I'd stopped working out when I'd lost my hand and hadn't gotten back to it yet.

"Yeah, we can do that now if you want?"

She gave another grunt, which I took as 'okay,' but then she noticed the content of my bench and asked, "What's that?"

"Oh just a little experiment," I answered.

"For what?" she asked again. She wasn't normally this talkative.

"One of the things that the Zerg can do is called 'Infestation,' " I explained. "Taking something that's not a Zerg and making it into a Zerg." I sent out a command and another infested rat, one that was more… even in body, went crawling from a corner into the middle of the room. "See?" Rachel then looked at it, then back at me. "That one down there is my second try, actually. The first one melted into creep." I shuddered. The first infested rat had been entirely subsumed into the hivemind, meaning that I'd seen what it saw and felt what it felt as it dissolved. I didn't sleep that night.

"Anyway," I continued, "it's possible to infest something without taking control of it or plugging it into the hivemind, and I'm trying to figure out how to do that."

"Why?"

I shrugged. "Mostly because it's something to do while I wait for the drones to finish excavating." I'd sent a few extra drones after the one I'd set to digging. I was going to have at least one backup hive and some stable subterranean tunnels heading out of the city, just in case. I absently wondered if I could get away with spawning a nydus worm if I planted it deep enough and never used it to surface. "But… Well, the Zerg are a lot more durable and heal a lot faster than most creatures." Also, I was pretty sure they were clinically immortal if I had gotten how that regen works right. "I'm a bit of a way away from that, but if I can find a way to make someone Zerg on the inside but not on the outside without mastering them, then… But that's a way off and I'd have to talk to Lisa or Brian about it first." If I could do that though, that's the kind of thing that could save lives. And if I could save lives, then...

"Wouldn't you have to test that on people though?" ...Crap. Well, there goes that idea.

"Yeah. Never mind then."

And then I got on the ground, she sat on my back, Angelica sat in her lap, and I started my push-ups. Around the time I got to fifty, Rachel spoke up. "You could try it on me."

And then my face hit the creep covered floor, Angelica jumped from atop me with a frightened yelp, and while I couldn't see her I got the impression that Rachel was glaring at me.

I took a moment to compose myself, and then said "What!?"

"The infest thing," Rachel said simply. "If you need to try it on a person, you can try it out on me."

"Rachel, do you know what you're suggesting?"

"If it works I get stronger," Rachel said. It was honestly starting to sound like she thought I'd suddenly become stupid.

"And if it doesn't work," I patiently tried to explain, "then you'd be permanently attached to me. Or you'd lose yourself in the hivemind. Or die." Seriously, this was crazier than… "And chances are, you'd end up a freak like me or worse even if it did work." Maybe I'd have better luck convincing her if I wasn't still face down on the ground with her sitting on me.

"I trust you," Rachel said. "Er… I want to trust you." I didn't know how to feel about that.

"Look," I said, "barring a miracle it's gonna be a good long while before this is even close to ready for human testing. Let's just..."

Rachel made a sound, Angelica climbed back up, and I finished my pushups. She climbed off of me, I stood up, and then a squelching sound happened. Checking my work desk, crawling out of the fourth cocoon was a rat with glowing eyes but that otherwise looked perfectly ordinary… A quick check established that I wasn't sharing its senses. I silently cursed myself for saying "barring a miracle."

"Okay," I said, "I need to figure out how and why this rat is different from the others and… stuff. And talk, before… stuff." I noticed a presence that hadn't been in the lair earlier. "Brian's here and I just remembered that I've got to talk to him about something and let's just finish this later okay?"

Rachel shrugged and left. I grabbed the latest rat and tossed it in an old cage I'd found in an alley to study it later and went upstairs to Brian's apartment.

Brian didn't live in the lair, the so his apartment wasn't as heavily furnished as Alec's was, just a bed and a couch in case he needed to crash here, and some training equipment he'd brought in to replace the training room that had been lost when the Undersiders' loft had been burned down.

Alec had said that Brian had been out of it for a while, and I could tell. He just felt angry and frustrated all the time. Not angry at any one thing in particular, and it wasn't a kind of anger I was familiar with, but… I heard a noise when I got to his door. It sounded like he was working a punching bag. I knocked.

The punching sound stopped. "Come in."

I entered.

Brian was shirtless but had yet to work up a sweat. "Taylor. What do you need?"

I wasn't about to tell him that I'd used him as an excuse to get out of an awkward conversation. Besides, I probably should have asked him this a while ago: "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Brian," I said calmly, "I can sense emotions and sometimes read minds."

Brian sighed and turned back to his punching bag. "Empire did a jail-break while you were out." He explained, "but they had to lure heroes away before they could do it-fuck, they still lost three capes and only managed to save Hookwolf. A bunch of Empire grunts went out and attacked people-guess what kind." Brian took a big swing at the bag. "My father was killed in an attack."

Oh. "Brian, I'm so sorry.."

"The worst part?" Brian asked. "I don't even know how to feel about it." He took a few more jabs. "Dad wasn't the best parent-don't get me wrong, he was better than my mom or her boyfriend were," he hit the bag with an uppercut, "but he didn't exactly know how to be a dad. He wasn't a good dad to me, and he was a worse parent..." Brian grunted in confusion, and then he took one big swing and the bag almost hit the ceiling.

"I'm sorry, I wish I knew what to say, but… Brian? Who is that." I pointed to his couch, where I'd noticed a pretty young black girl, a year or two younger than me with perfect features and generous… assets, where a strapless top and short shorts that were far too trashy for someone that young or someone that pretty, with a blonde streak dyed in her hair. Her clothes were wrinkled-I could see stains of some kind-and she smelled… funky. There were tear stains around her eyes, and it felt like she'd gone through the whole spectrum of negativity recently.

"Who is who-What?" He looked where I was pointing. "Aisha? Oh shit, Aisha!"

The girl looked at us and in said, in the most deadpan tone imaginable with just a hint of frustration below it: "It's about fucking time. I've been here for a week."


	31. Lull 402

**Lull 4.02**

We were down in my room. "I'd just like to say again that I'm still not sure about this."

"Yeah," Rachel said, a touch annoyed… or angry. It was sometimes hard to tell with her. "You already took my blood and made the stuff."

I wasn't quite a Tinker. Tinkers at least played at being scientists or engineers and I just sort of put ingredients together and zerg stuff happened. Like the flies-I knew that feeding maggots on creep that was mixed with bits of crushed up bugs would make zerg-flies that had bits of the other bugs in them, but I had no idea how it worked and mixing it together and wanting it to happen was the full extent of my involvement. I knew that certain kinds of chemicals were needed for the cocoon, but not why or what they did. And I know that I could use a few drops of my blood, any convenient source of relatively clean water, a little bit of biomass from whatever was handy, and just a touch of creep in a vial left to stew for a couple of days to make a solution full of infestation virus but I had no idea how any of that cooked together. My best guess was that it had something to do with psionics.

The closest thing to actual science I had done was trying to modify the virus to give me what I wanted. I had vague ideas of how to go about it, but I was mostly just shooting in the dark-the first successful rat had been a fluke that it's taken me three more tries before I'd known how to do it.

"I'm just saying," I explained, "out of ten attempts I've only got four successes." I'd managed to create two more rats that weren't in the hivemind and didn't look like Zerg, and I'd been able to replicate it in a half-dead squirrel I'd found floating in the sewers when I'd tried. The trick, so it seemed, was to taste some of the infested to be's blood, then mix a little bit of it with mine before it went into the vial. "I know I've made the virus already, but you can still back out or, or put it off, it's not too late."

Why did I make the infestation pod? I'd said I'd have to have made a full sized one before I could even consider testing it on Rachel, then like a dumbass, I'd actually made one. Turns out, infestation pods didn't take as long to grow as the Cocoon.

"Taylor," Rachel began, "you said all that already. And what could happen. I'm not stupid."

"You could die! Or worse!" Oh God, why did I even start this?

"I could also die in the hospital because a doctor fucked up," Rachel answered bluntly. "I trust you more than a doctor. You gonna fuck up?"

"I'm going to try not to!" That wasn't the point, why couldn't I…

"If I may?" Lisa interrupted as she stood from her seat on my table. "Bitch, Taylor doesn't think you know what the risks are-let me finish," she said as Rachel looked ready to interrupt, "but she's wrong. Rachel, on the other hand," Lisa continued, "doesn't seem to get just how worried that you are Taylor, and I don't think we're gonna get anywhere until we get this settled. I'll be right back, Rachel, why don't you tell Taylor what you think the risks are?"

Lisa then left up the stairs. I turned back to Rachel. "So..."

Rachel growled, just a bit, "this is stupid. Look, you said that if it doesn't work I'll die, end up a puppet, or be stuck with you forever, right? That last one doesn't sound that bad, really" she said looking away.

"Or you could end up a freak like me, or a complete monster."

"The assholes already think I'm a serial killer, so why worry about being a monster?" Rachel said with all the wisdom of someone who clearly thought I was overthinking this, "and I don't give a shit how I look as long as my dogs still recognize me." Rachel answered simply. "So it's not a problem. Why are you so scared? Brian said it was okay."

"Yeah, but between his dad and getting… Aisha settled, I'm not sure he's on his A-game right now, so..."

"He takes his job as our leader very seriously," came Lisa's voice from upstairs, "and you might not have noticed since you hardly ever left your room in the last few days, but he's been kicking himself over letting us get captured. He's not gonna half-ass a decision like this." Lisa was holding a stack of four standard sized school notebooks. "We looked at your results, you only had the two dead rats and the one puppet," Lisa said, "Rachel knows the risks. I know she knows the risks, because of the detailed instructions she gave me for how to take care of her dogs." Lisa then handed me the notebooks and I looked through them. "I had to write it all down," she continued, "because each individual dog has it's own ludicrously specific schedule, diet, discipline methods, and preferred treats, and they cross reference each other." The notebooks were all full. "Rachel explained this to me several times and I'm pretty sure that she'll either break my legs or haunt me if I make even the tiniest deviation." Rachel glared at Lisa, who ignored her and gave me the cheekiest of grins, "we've all been busy while you were experimenting… except for Alec, I haven't seen him in a few days. Now, assured that Rachel knows what she's getting into?"

I nodded, "yeah."

"Okay then," Lisa continued, "and Rachel, Taylor has no faith in her pseudo-tinkering and would never forgive herself if something bad happened to one of her new friends and it was even tangentially possible that it was her fault."

"Look it's not-excuse me for a second"

I had to redirect some drones. Someone else was poking around in the tunnels I'd set my drones to digging. Some kind of machine. It looked a bit like an animal of some kind. It hadn't spotted my drone, as far as I could tell, not yet. I had a few circle around and approach from the other end of the tunnel so I could get a better look.

The machine was kind of hard to place. It was clearly some kind of winged probe, but it was modeled on a quadruped and walked on four legs. It kind of looked like a cross between stealth jet, a cat, and a dinosaur, or maybe a…

"Dragon!"

"What?" Rachel asked.

"Dragon has a suit in my tunnels, Dragon is exploring my tunnels, Dragon knows about my tunnels which means the PRT knows about the tunnels they're gonna think I'm preparing for war or something my emergency escape plan is ruined, we're so-"

"Taylor!" Lisa shouted, "calm your scaly blue tits." I forced myself to take a deep breath. "Okay now, what's it doing?"

"Looking around," I said, splitting my attention between my room and the tunnel. "It hasn't spotted my drones yet, but-never mind, it just saw one!"

The dragon suit moved around a corner and turned its eyeless head in such a way that even with its blank expression it was clearly trying to evoke the idea that it was looking my drones in the eye.

"Taylor," Lisa asked, "is the suit armed?"

I had my drones give it another once over just to be sure. "Not that I can tell, but there could be weapons inside or something."

"Does it look stealthy?"

"Not particularly," I answered.

"Okay," Lisa continued. "Has it acted at all aggressive since it spotted your drone?"

"No. It's just kind of staring at a drone and-It's backing up," The dragon suit was retreating, back the way it came… and walking backward, which had me concerned about what it was capable of seeing or what it had already seen. I raised a finger to cut off Lisa. The dragon suit backed away slowly, and after thirty seconds I hesitantly had a drone follow after it. The suit was capable of moving quite fast, but I was hesitant to make my drone speed up. Eventually, I managed to track the suit back to a tunnel I hadn't dug and found it climbing up through a trap door in a steel panel on the tunnel ceiling. The trap door slammed closed as the drone approached, and then the edges of the opening started glowing red.

It took me a moment to realize that, just above my drone, the dragon suit or someone working with Dragon was welding the trap door shut.

"It's gone," I said. "And I don't think it's coming back."

"Where was it in the tunnels?" Lisa asked. "Was it anywhere near here?"

I thought about it for a second. "No."

"This was a test," Lisa said with complete certainty. "The Protectorate Capes implicitly agreed, on camera, to leave you alone and not come near here as long as we didn't start shit, but they didn't say they wouldn't poke around in places you've worked… And if you'd attacked Dragon's probe, then they'd have had an excuse to come after us since you'd have technically started it..." Lisa got silent for a while. "Dragon wanted you to spot her, too," she said… I kind of got the impression that she'd meant to start with that. "I don't like this. Either the substitute director is retarded, or he's not that concerned with casualties… Well, it could also mean that the PRT finally has a good psych profile on you and they're just being dicks because they know you won't retaliate, but I'm not seeing Dragon going along with that and honestly, who would be that petty?"

I shrugged just in time for Rachel to say "Drunk Alec?" Alec was not a fun drunk, and now I had a lock on my booze fridge.

"Okay," Lisa said without acknowledging Rachel, "This is a problem, but it's not a big one. We'll just have to up our schedule… Taylor, can I borrow your communicator? I think I'm gonna have to talk with your dad directly for a few days and… wait, did I ever ask you if you were okay with doing a call-in interview?"

"No, you didn't, but I guess it'd be okay." Honestly, I had no idea what to do and was more than content to let Lisa and Dad take care of this. "And yeah, you can borrow the communicator if you really need it."

"Okay," Lisa began, "if that's..." she looked at the Cocoon and then sighed. "Right… Taylor, I looked at what you've done with this infestation stuff… Which really needs a new name if you're gonna be doing what you want to be doing with it, and I'm like 90% sure that nothing bad is gonna happen. Most of what's left is stuff Bitch would be okay with. Between that and what we covered early, are your fears soothed?"

"A little."

"And Rachel," Lisa continued, "just so we're all on the same page: We're the first positive human contact Taylor's had in months, you're the first one she got close to, the first real friend she's had in years, she considers you her best friend, she's noticed that you don't exactly get along with the rest of us-and if I may give my own opinion," she said shifting gears, "I think this friendship is good for the both of you-and she kind of loves you in a friendshippy way."

"Lisa that's not how I'd-" I was cut off by Rachel hugging me. Which was awkward, because she'd stripped naked in preparation of getting into the pod first thing upon coming down here

There was a flash and a clicking sound and I took note of Aisha's presence in the room. I could have sworn that Brian had taken her back to his apartment-the one he lived in, not the one here, but with her power, it wouldn't have been hard for her to sneak back over I guess. It was a simple matter to telekinetically snatch the phone from her hand and gently pull it to myself. Rachel released me just in time for me to look through the device to try and figure out how to delete photos and…

...Where did this phone come from? I set it down on my table and got back to the task at hand.

"So," Lisa finished explaining, "You can understand why Taylor's worried about something going wrong, right?" Rachel nodded, "good. So, now that everybody's concerns are addressed and everybody knows why everybody else is acting the way they are, so we can get down to business." Lisa blinked. "Or not. Postponing this would probably be a good idea and… No? Okay."

A flex of my psychic muscles caused the front of the semi-translucent purple infestation pod to unfold. I went over to my workbench to grab the vial of Rachel-Keyed Infestation virus and a syringe. I had a full box of needles. When our boss, Coil, had been talked into supplying me with, well, supplies for my quasi-tinkering, he'd also provided me with basic medical supplies, even though I'm not that kind of wet-tinker. I think the needles were meant for collecting samples, but honestly, I'd never touched them until I needed to inject test subjects with experimental viruses.

"Okay first, Rachel," I began, "I'm going to inject you with a bit of this virus. It's specially keyed to you and it'll work by essentially rewriting your DNA." I began preparing the needle "Then you'll step into the pod," I used my psychic powers to gently pull a flexible organic tube from inside the pod, "and then this goes down your windpipe. You'll be breathing through this while you're in the pod so you don't drown in goo. Then I close the pod, and it fills with this, well, goo that's supposed to stabilize the Infestation process, and that's it until it's all done. That could take anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks." It had been variable with the rodents, and Rachel was a lot bigger and a lot more complex than a rodent. "The breathing tube will mix in a gas that'll relax you and make you tired once the pod is full, so you should sleep through the whole thing. Once I put the virus in you, there's no turning back." Actually, trying to stop after that would probably make it worse now that I thought about it. "I want to hear you say that you want to do this."

Rachel's body language told me that she'd had it with me asking things like that, but she complied. "I want to do this."

I took another deep breath and waved her over. I gave her a shot in the arm, got her situated in the pod, and promised that "I'll be here when you wake up, whenever that is." She tried to smile at me… she's not good at it, even without a tube down her throat, but I appreciated the gesture. Then I closed her up.

I didn't say or do anything until two minutes after the pod was full and I could sense Rachel's emotions calming down and her consciousness coming to a rest. Then I sat down on my bed and started to breathe in slow, careful patterns. I'd read that doing that was supposed to help you stay calm. Lisa took my communicator and left shortly after, presumably to get to work on… whatever she was doing that involved me giving an interview.


	32. Lull 403

Lull 4.03

I took a deep breath. This wouldn't be hard. I just had to talk to the local news anchor about being a teenage girl who was forced into villainy, how my situation relates to the Canary trial, since that's topical and serves my purposes, and a bunch of other things that make me feel bad.

...Not for the first time, I wished that my powers were different because I couldn't even get drunk to take the edge off my nerves. I really needed to find some way to get rid of my stress or I'm going to end up having a double heart attack… I think. I honestly had no idea how many hearts I had anymore.

Just a few minutes. This was a call in thing, Dad had set up a third, untraceable channel on the communicators and given his friend in the media a way to get into it, and she had passed it on. I wondered if I should ask dad why he'd modeled them on Walkie Talkies? I mean, it was basically a cell phone.

Anyway, Lisa and I had done some research about a few things, relevant laws, the things that had gone down in Boston, I'd brushed up on the Constitution, and I'd made flashcards just in case. Exhale. I was as comfortable as I was going to get, sitting on my bed with all the zerg out patrolling the sewers and tunnels. Rachel, still sleeping in the infestation pod, was my only company. I just had to wait for them to call me, and then-

The tone went off, the one for this channel sounding kind of like an actual bell. I grabbed my communicator and answered. "Hello?"

"Hello," came a mature woman's voice as clear as day, "this is Patricia Smith of Channel 6 News, am I speaking to Empress?"

"Yes, you are," I answered maybe a little too quickly.

"Hold on," Patricia said, "there's some kind of interference."

"Interference?"

"It sounds like you're echoing."

"Oh no," I explained, "that's just my voice." I checked my clock. It was a little afternoon. Was there a news at noon?. "Uh, are we live?"

"Oh heavens no," the anchor answered, "this is going on the evening news. It doesn't happen often, but every time a supervillain or controversial cape gives a news interview, that station's ratings skyrocket the day of and a few days afterward, so Channel 6 wants to advertise this as much as possible and take the time to edit out any stutters or ums and bleep out the swear words."

I gulped, "then how do I know… Nevermind."

"Worried about malicious editing?" Patricia asked. "Don't be. Your father has friends here and there's a complicated economy of favors going on, if you were even curious about why, of all the hostages from Brockton Central, it was only the ones who believe your story that Channel 6 interviewed?"

Okay, that explained a lot. "Okay, so how do we…"

"Start by telling us your name."

"I'm Empress," I began, "but my real name is Taylor Hebert. There's really no point to me having a secret identity, so..."

"What do you prefer, Empress or Taylor?" Miss Hebert wasn't an option. It reminded me of a lawyer's trick I'd learned about. Calling someone by their first name or a nickname invokes an emotional attachment while Mister, Miss, and so on is more abstract. Maybe…

"Either or is fine for me," I answered.

"Well, if you don't mind me calling you Taylor," there we go, "then we should probably start from the beginning. I'm sure by now that everyone has a second or third-hand account of your story, but if you don't mind do you think you could repeat it?"

And so I did. I explained about the locker, about how my so-called 'rampage' boiled down to knocking someone over while having a panic attack, about how I was chased from my home and foamed by an agent who didn't so much as say a word, and all the other stuff I'd said at the bank.

"And that's how I ended up on the streets," I finished. "Later, I found out that I'd apparently 'severely injured' the girl I'd knocked over while I was fleeing the school, but I think that's a load of garbage. I mean, the way I remember it, I just sort of shoved her," Sophia, but none of the news on my 'victim' had mentioned names so I wouldn't, "to the ground because she was in my way and I wasn't thinking clearly enough to move around her, but the way the story went they were talking like I'd slashed her arm open… But my claws, even back then, are harder than diamond and sharper than razors. I mean, I've accidentally hurt a couple of people while getting a grasp on my powers-there's a PRT agent who was down an arm for a while because I underestimated how strong I was, but with how sharp my claws are I'd have been drenched in blood and the girl probably would have bled out." I took a moment to think back. "The girl I knocked over is still alive, the articles were clear on that, and I can clearly remember that the only blood on me was my own bloodied knuckles from punching through my locker to get out."

"Okay then, Patricia said, "That's something to think about. Now, before we return to your story, I have to ask: Do you have any idea who put you in that locker?

"I've got a good idea," I said bitterly as I thought to my ex-best friend and the two psycho-bitches she ran with nowadays, "but I can't prove anything and besides, it's not like it'd help me now." I tried so very hard not to think about what I'd felt in Emma's head at the market.

"That's a rather mature perspective on all of this," the anchor said, "So, back to your story, why don't you tell us about your time on the streets?"

"What's there to tell that hasn't already been told?" I asked, "I get chased away from home, I have run-ins with the PRT agents or a Ward where I get attacked on sight, accidents happen, I have to steal to survive, yadda yadda, eventually I throw my lot in with the Undersiders because they're the only people who treat me like a person."

"The Wards attacked you without a word?"

"Well, a Ward," I admitted. " Okay, this is a little bit against what I said earlier, but this is a little more serious than a cruel prank." I sighed. "A few days into my de facto exile, I was scavenging through a dumpster when I was shot in the back by Shadow Stalker. Apparently," I said, remember something I found out later, "she's on probation for almost killing a guy and is not supposed to be using blade-tipped bolts, but that's what she used on me. That, that's something for someone to look into, right?" I asked. "Then there was… Never mind." That, that was something I didn't want to go into.

"Taylor?" Patricia asked, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," I said perhaps a bit too quickly.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I..." I took a deep breath. "Look, something happened and I'm not so sure I'm willing to broadcast it out to the whole city."

"Something involving Shadow Stalker." the anchor inferred.

"Yeah," I admitted.

"Taylor," she said, "I'm not going to make you tell me if you don't want to. Honestly, her shooting you in the back is big enough on its own, so if whatever this is is too personal or too uncomfortable, we can just move onto the next question. Maybe save it for another interview. It's up to you. However," she continued. "If it helps, if you tell me and then decide you don't want it to air after all, we can always edit it out before we air the interview."

"Okay." Inhale, exhale. "This is hard to say. It, it was...Hard, the first couple of days on the street. Before I figured everything out. A day, maybe two, after Shadow Stalker attacked me. I hit rock bottom, I just wanted everything to end, one way or another. I convinced myself that Dad would be better off, that he could deal if I just wasn't there anymore." I swallowed.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I under-oh."

"...Yeah" I said after a moment. "Looking back, it'd probably been building up for a long time, but I just hit my breaking point, and… At first, I tried my wrists, you know, but I didn't know which way you're supposed to… You know, and my healing factor was a bit stronger than I thought it was so it didn't work. It's always pretty quick on the TV, but..." Damn it! I took a few more breaths to steady myself. "So, then I spent an hour or so just, like, trying to find some heavy rocks and filled my pockets. I, um, I found a spot that overlooked a deep part of the bay, and I… I thought about what I was doing. I didn't go through with it that time. Doing it that way, it takes a while, and I decided that I wasn't quite ready to go yet… Then I got shot in the back again." Deep breaths. In and out. "I turn around and it's Shadow Stalker again. She shot me again, punched me in the face, and then kicked me into the bay. I sank like a stone, and my last thoughts were on how unfair it was for her to try and-" I choked on the next word and had to pause again." How unfair it was for her to do that… right, right after I changed my mind. Obviously, it didn't stick, but..."

"Taylor? Do you need to take a moment?"

"No, but thank you, Patricia," I replied. "Can I call you Patricia?" She answered yes and I continued. "But… things are better now. I've got a dedicated place to live that's...mostly safe, and I've got friends now, so things are better even if they still suck."

"Well, that's good to hear." She sounded sincere. "But about your friends?"

"The Undersiders? They're great," I said with a smile. "Regent's pretty good for a laugh, Grue's like everyone's big brother, Tattletale's pretty friendly once you get to know her-my little outings," referring to the shopping trip and girls day out, "were her idea, and Rachel's surprisingly cuddly. They're the first people in months to treat me like an actual human being instead of a monster to hunt down. Yeah, they're criminals," I admitted, "and yeah, I helped them commit a few crimes, but they're not bad people and honestly, they're kind of in the same boat as I am."

"What do you mean?" She asked. And this is the moment I had been waiting for.

I took a breath, "You see… when you're a parahuman who has committed or even been accused of a crime, well, people don't necessarily care about things like 'innocent' or 'guilty' or 'right' or 'wrong' or even the law. If you're scary enough, you get treated like a monster. If you're useful enough, and they think they can control you, then people will come out of the woodwork to try and get you to work for them," I took a moment to compose my thoughts. "Or sometimes, the people who are supposed to be helping you or looking into the law just don't give a damn."

"That's a pretty serious accusation," Patricia said, "I mean, it's pretty obvious that sometimes members of law enforcement don't behave properly, but you're talking about fundamental corruption in the system."

"I know," I said, "and I've got proof. My friend Rachel Lindt, for example-"

"I'm sorry," Patricia interrupted, You said that name a second ago," she said. "Who is Rachel?"

"The PRT calls her Hellhound," I said, "but she hates that name. However, her preferred Cape Alias isn't exactly G rated. Her real name is a matter of public record so for the sake of keeping this clean, I'm just going to call her Rachel."

"Alright then, thank you for the explanation."

"Now," I continued, "I don't know the full story, but I think I have the important parts and\ from what I've been told and what I put together she was abandoned as small child, shoveled from foster home to foster home, the homes would be bad matches or she wouldn't get along with other kids in the home, and eventually she ended up in the home of a woman who treated her very poorly."

"Can you clarify that statement?"

"Rachel's final foster mother was strict," I explained, "like, 'if you're a minute late to dinner or use a salad fork on steak, you don't get to eat that night but do have to watch your food get thrown in the trash and the others eating' strict."

"I presume that this is what made her ''trigger?' " She asked. "For our viewers at home who don't know, a person becomes a parahuman via a phenomenon called a trigger event where some extreme stimulus causes them to become mentally overwhelmed, causes them to hit a breaking point that 'triggers' their latent powers."

"No," I corrected, "That came later. Rachel gets on better with dogs than with people," I explained, " and she was keeping one in secret. Unfortunately, it wasn't well trained, if at all, and Rachel had to keep it confined near 24/7 because of course her foster mother would have gotten rid of it if she found out. One day it started getting aggressive and antsy from being cooped up and Rachel let it out for just a little, but the foster mother tried to drown it to punish Rachel for having it in the first place." I took a moment to compose myself, I was starting to feel sad. "The stress of seeing her only friend in the world being killed just to punish her was too much, and suddenly her untrained, panicking puppy was an untrained, panicking meat-tank. The dog proceeded to act exactly how you'd expect a dog in flight or fight mode to act, it attacked and mauled anyone it could get its paws on. The Foster mother. The other children that she was abusing. It was only dumb luck that it didn't get Rachel. She couldn't control it, couldn't calm it down, she'd literally just gotten her powers. She had no idea what was going on, so she ran for safety. Now, even though all she wants is to be left alone with her dogs, she's on the run from murder charges because the people in charge refuse to cut her some slack for something outside of her control." I sighed. "None of that would have happened if Rachel's foster mother hadn't been an abusive puppy killer. None of it would have happened if Child Services had done their jobs and not let a woman like that become a foster parent, let alone put the most vulnerable children with her."

"That's a rather intense tale," Patricia said, "That… Why would…?"

"Because they don't care about right and wrong," I repeated, "They just care about how scary you are, whether or not you're useful, and if you'll toe the party line. Anyway, then we have Tattletale," I continued, "she's psychic. She can read minds,"I gave Tattletale's claim, "just like me but less monstery. Her dad found out, and he wanted to exploit her for her powers, so she ran and ended up homeless on the streets picking pockets to survive.

"Why picking pockets specifically?"

"Well, for one, there aren't many jobs that pay a wage you can live off of that hire teenage dropouts," I explained, "and for two, well, there are laws, I don't know all of them of the top of my head, that make it difficult, if not impossible, for parahumans with certain powers to get jobs in certain fields or engage in things like the lottery or gambling if their powers would give them an 'unfair' advantage. Tattletale is a mind reader, you can count the number of legitimate jobs that her powers wouldn't give her an 'unfair' advantage in on one hand. Anyway. So she was alone on the streets with basically no chance of getting legitimate income, so she was picking pockets and stealing to get by, and then she got in trouble. Some less than savory types found out about her power and were interested, and then she had a choice to make: She could let herself be exploited by criminals, Supervillains, or crooked businessman, committing crimes in the hopes of being provided for… Or she could go to the PRT, in which case she'd have either been exploited by them for her power or else sent to prison for her thefts, for an excessive amount of time, because she refused to be used, or she could lay down and die." I was starting to get thirsty. I debated the merits of getting up to grab something out of my mini-fridge but decided against it when I considered the time it would take to open the lock. I then resolved to make Alec's life difficult for a few days. "Instead, she became Tattletale: If her only other options for survival were to be used or to break the law, she decided that she might as well be breaking the law for herself instead of for other people. She says that it turns out that the life of a Supervillain is a lot safer than being a homeless teenage girl, and from my experiences, I'll have to agree."

"I have to say… that makes a disturbing amount of sense"

"So yeah," I said, "between my own experiences and what my friends have told me, when a parahuman has an accident, or causes a scene, or commits or is thought to have committed a minor crime… There comes a point where the people in charge stop caring about right and wrong, it's a little different for everyone, but you can submit, if you're useful, die if you're not… Or you can keep escalating and survive on your own terms. If you're lucky you get to make the call yourself."

"I'm sorry," Patricia said, "but I don't quite understand what you mean. Could you please clarify?"

"Yeah," and here we go, another part that made me uncomfortable. I got my flashcards ready. "Well, I've got a perfect example from not that long ago: Channel Six is covering the Canary trial, right?"

"We are," replied the anchor. "Paige 'Canary' Mcabee was accused of using the emotion affecting properties of her singing voice to force her ex-boyfriend to mutilate himself in response to his belligerent behavior after one of her concerts. She was convicted and sentenced to incarceration in the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center."

"Okay," I began, "now before I start, it's very important for you to remember that Paige surrendered and cooperated with the police. She did everything that you're 'supposed' to do when accused of a crime. A guilty person would have lawyered up at the first chance and done everything they could have to stall things and buy themselves more time."

"I suppose so," Patricia said, "but that doesn't really constitute proof that she's innocent"

"But it does make it highly unlikely that she was planning to run for it, but that's something to get to in a little bit. Anyway, Canary was protected by the TSPA act, which is a three strike law. Three strike laws exist to discourage first-time offenders, especially those who committed minor crimes, from becoming repeat offenders. The TSPA act in particular also exists to prevent first time and minor parahuman offenders from being thrown straight into the Birdcage. The Judge admitted that she was in fact protected by the three strikes rule, and then essentially explained that he was going to completely ignore that and that he was throwing her into the Cage even though he legally wasn't allowed to."

"Could you pause here?" the anchor asked. "We have a clip of that and this is a great place for a sound bite."

"Yeah. Wait, actually, can you get ahold of that and, I don't know if there's a way to play that over this, but..."

"I'll see what I can do," she replied.

I waited a few minutes, and then a man's voice, slightly distorted, came out of the communicator.

"Determining sentencing for this case is not easy. As your lawyer has no doubt made you aware, you do fall under the umbrella of the TSPA, or the three strikes act. At the age of twenty three, you have been convicted of no prior crimes… It is with this in mind that I have decided that there is sufficient cause to sentence you outside the scope of the TSPA. Guilty on two counts, the defendant, Paige Mcabee, is sentenced to indefinite incarceration within the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center."

Hearing the half-assed rationalization again made my blood boil.

A few moments later, Patricia was back. "Were you able to hear that?"

"Yes, thank you. And this is really all you need to know that something very wrong was going on in that trial: The Judge as good as admitted that the sentence he made was illegal. Even if the guilty verdict was upheld, any reasonable judge would have overturned the sentence for a more reasonable one, if not at the initial trial, than at least on appeal." I double checked my card on Birdcage sentences. "Except there's no appealing a Birdcage sentence, which I'm pretty sure is a violation of the First Amendment right to petition to the government for redress of wrongs, but that's a whole other can of worms. I mean, death row inmates get plenty of appeals and retrials and can go years or decades before being executed because that's permanent and you want to be sure that you're not making a mistake. But a Birdcage sentence is just as permanent, and they get shipped away within days or weeks with not so much as a token appeal."

"In fairness," Patricia said, " the Judge did state his reasoning-the prohibitive expense of creating specific measures to contain Canary and the cruelty of keeping her as restrained as she was."

"And fear that she'd get back out into the population and master someone else.," I finished, "Which is a poor reason. Like… The non-parahuman equivalent of this would be a person with no criminal history getting into a fight with someone who provoked them, accidentally killing them, getting convicted of manslaughter, and then the Judge ordering that they immediately be taken out and hung from the oak tree in front of the courthouse because if he sends them to prison they'll kill again. It's insane." I sighed. "Anyway, can you honestly tell me that being sent to die in a hole in the ground where there are no guards to keep the other inmates from raping or killing you really more merciful than being left bound and gagged?" Patricia made a noise that put the image of her flinching in my mind. "It's… The people who made these laws. They have power, and they used that power because they saw what they thought of as dangerous criminals but they never stopped to think that there could be extenuating circumstances behind the crimes or that innocent people could be hurt because of their recklessness." My thoughts turned to that afternoon at the bank where Barbie burst in through a wall with no concern for the civilians and almost killed Rachel.

"There's no way out of the Birdcage-the only way in is an elevator shaft that only goes one way. It's suspended in a hollowed out mountain that is kept in an artificial state of vacuum and the whole facility is lined with deadly traps: There's no escaping the facility alive. If someone is sentenced to the Birdcage, and then it turns out that they were innocent? They're screwed, because there's literally no way to get them out. Assuming that they haven't already been killed or worse, because the entire prison is basically run by the worst Parahuman criminals in the world, so there are fleetingly slim chances that you'll find a place that's truly safe." I was starting to breathe heavily. "And it's an mixed prison, with men and women. Which means that there's sex happening, consensual or otherwise. Are the children being born into the Birdcage and being trapped there for their entire lives? Or does a Birdcage sentence come with forced sterilization or compulsory birth control? I honestly don't know, but one of them has to be true and I'm not sure which is worse. The Birdcage is basically a particularly cruel death sentence, but the law doesn't treat it that way."

"Taylor?" Patricia asked. "Are you-"

"And that's not even the worst part! Tattletale knows a guy," actually it was Tattletale's hacking, but that doesn't fit with the narrative that she was psychic. "We managed to get ahold of some… correspondences. Dragon, best Tinker in the world now that Hero's gone, is the only Tinker working on the Birdcage. If she didn't build it, she's at least responsible for everything it is now, and she's also it's Warden. She's also on the record as hating it and made contact with the Judge from Canary's trial asking him to be lenient and reconsider her sentence at the same time that she was preparing to carry the sentence out." It took me a second to realize that I was starting to growl and correct myself. "Dragon is literally the only person running and maintaining it. If she hated the Birdcage so much, she could dismantle it, refuse to put people in, or any other number of things that would see it shut down in favor of something better, but she doesn't."

"Well, she does have to follow the law," Patricia said, "But Taylor, are you-?"

" 'I was just following orders' wasn't good enough at Nuremberg and it's not good enough now.": I interrupted. "Besides, it's not like she has to worry about being arrested. She's one of the most powerful and famous capes on the planet. If she really had an objection to it, she could make demands and there's nothing anybody could do about it. Nobody even knows where Dragon lives, they couldn't arrest her if they wanted to." I took a deep breath. " There's a Mark Twain quote I've seen a couple of times. I don't know the full thing by heart, but I can remember how it ends. It goes something like 'When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, plant yourself by the river of truth and tell the whole world: No, you move.' Dragon makes protests, but the second she's ordered to do something, she caves. Either she doesn't really care and is just making token protests… Or one of the greatest heroes in the world is a spineless, cowardly, weak-willed… Thing who caves under the slightest pressure instead of doing what she thinks is right! I don't know which is worse."

"Are you done now?"

"Yeah," I said. I wiped the tears from my eyes.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, sorry, I've had the Cage on the brain for a while now." Between Obi-Mom Brandnobi's threat and Paige's conviction, it's been hard not to think about it. "I got a bit distracted. Back to the matter at hand, the reason she was cuffed and chained was because the prosecution argued that, as a parahuman, she might have superhuman strength." I cycled through my notes until I had the right ones. "Ignoring the implications that every parahuman is exactly the same, they postulated, without evidence, that she had superhuman strength and that she might be a flight risk, again she willingly surrendered and fully cooperated up until they stripped her rights from her so she probably wasn't going to run for it, and her lawyer failed to argue that she didn't and wasn't." I let out a bitter chuckle. "And I looked some things up. She was muzzled and gagged because they were afraid that if she could get the chance, she'd be able to master the jury or something. Here's the thing, in order for her powers to work, she needs to sing or at least raise her voice, right?"

"To my knowledge."

"You know that collar that they had her wearing? The one the size of a tire? It's Tinker-Tech. It's supposed to sedate her if she starts singing. The muzzle was completely unnecessary." A thought occurred to me. "Actually, now that I think about it, they didn't even need the collar. Just give the bailiff a taser and instruct him to use it if she starts singing." I reviewed one of my flashcards. "Actually, they don't even need that: There's legal precedent for having certain parahumans, usually high-level blasters, attend their trial via a video conference specifically so that they can't attack people in the courtroom or escape. If the prosecution thought that Paige was as dangerous as they said she was, if she was as much a flight risk as they said she was, then having her in the courtroom at all was dangerously irresponsible." My mouth was getting dry. I licked around in the insides to try to moisten it a bit, but I'd have to drink something soon. "So they've got her in completely unnecessary heavy duty restraints, which is cruel and unusual if anything is, before she's even been convicted. The only purpose the gag served was keeping her from talking. And her hands were restrained, so she couldn't write anything down or type it, either."

"So what are you saying?."

"I think that the reason that the prosecution was so insistent on having Paige bound and gagged," I explained, "was to deny her her rights. She couldn't talk or write anything, so she couldn't participate in her own defense, and by presenting her to the jury muzzled like a feral animal and bound in chains, well, there's no way a jury is going to be impartial. Which I think violates her fifth amendment right to due process before an impartial jury." I cleared my throat. "She was also prevented from communicating with her lawyer in any reasonable manner. Speaking of her lawyer, he was a court-appointed defender," I explained, "and you're only supposed to get those if you can't afford a lawyer or otherwise can't get one of your own, Paige was rich. She could have easily afforded her own attorney. Instead she got a man who she was only allowed to talk to through email that he didn't reply to and who didn't even bother to defend her, let alone provide a competent defense, appointed to her by the judge who blatantly ignored the law when sentencing her and gave her the maximum sentence on flimsy reasoning. I'm pretty sure that denying her the chance to hire a lawyer appointing her one she isn't even allowed to talk to is a violation of her right to legal counsel."

"So not only is the judge, by all appearances openly ignoring the very law he's supposed to uphold," Patricia finished, "but you believe that he actively conspired to ensure that she was found guilty."

"Exactly," I confirmed, "in fact, I'm glad you said that, conspire, because it brings me to another few points. I don't know, exactly, if the judge and the prosecution were working together, but something's fishy about the prosecution's claims and I can smell it from here." I cleared my throat again and idly wondered why I hadn't evolved past the need for phlegm yet. "At no point was there any presumption of innocence in Paige's trial. The prosecution made a bunch of baseless claims about what Canary did, what she was capable of doing, and what she was going to do, and the judge proceeded to act like every last one of them was true. Why would a first-time offender who surrendered to the police and cooperated every step of the way be a flight risk? There was never even an offer of bail, just an assumption that she was dangerous and who could and would run or master people into helping her escape or do it herself with the super strength that there was no proof that she had, leading to her being chained up like she was already convicted. The judge assumed that she deliberately mastered her boyfriend and that she would master someone else if she ever got out of prison. Her lawyer barely gave a token defense." I sighed. "All suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty. That's the idea that our justice system is based on, but Canary's trial is pretty solid evidence that it's an idea that's not worth anything anymore."

I looked over my notes just to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything. "Oh, and speaking of things the prosecution claimed without proof, not once did the prosecution provide any evidence that Canary's ex-boyfriend was actually mastered. We only have the man's word, and that, arguably, violates the fourth amendment which states that warrants, including arrest warrants, can't be issued without probable cause. One man's word that he was mastered when he mutilated himself is not probable cause. For those keeping score at home," I finished, "that's half the Bill of Rights being thrown out in the Canary Trial."

"But why would the man have mutilated himself if he wasn't mastered?" the anchor asked.

"First, and um... You're gonna have to bleep this," I said, "if someone told you to 'go fuck yourself…' I'm willing to bet that even at your most literal, there's going to be a few things you think of before you think of cutting off one part and shoving it up another, right?"

"...You're not wrong," she admitted uneasily.

"Paige didn't give him the order to mutilate himself," I went on, "she basically said the harshest and angriest form of 'go away' there is. Either this is a freak accident, or the man's lying." I checked the clock. We'd been at this for a while. "And I'm suspicious of the guy: from what the witnesses say, he confronted Paige with a claim that he was entitled to half her money. Now that Paige has been convicted, he's sueing her for absolutely everything she has and she can't exactly defend herself when she's drugged into a coma and waiting to be shipped to a hole in the ground, so of course, he's going to get everything."

"But still, don't you think that it's a little irresponsible to just throw out an accusation like that?"

"I'll admit," I said, "that what I'm suggesting is an extreme worst case scenario, but my point is that the prosecution never once proved that Canary's boyfriend was mastered, which is the centerpiece of the entire case against her, and honestly 'prove that he's been mastered because otherwise for all we know he could have done it himself, he has motive' is something that any competent defense attorney would do. I mean, they charged her with sexual assault for it and the standard defense for that is 'provide a good argument that sexual activity actually happened and that the victim didn't want it' which is kind of scummy," I admitted, "and in any other case where a person is suspected of being mastered, they have to you know, prove that they were mastered. It's jarring that those kinds of defenses were not employed here."

"I can see where you're coming from," Patricia said hesitantly, "but I'm not sure that a man would do that to himself just for money?"

"Well, again, I'm not saying that he did it, I'm just saying that it's suspicious that the possibility never came up. Besides," I continued, "there is a precedent for this kind of thing." I checked my notes to make sure I had the name right. "Have you ever heard of a place called 'Nub City?'"

"I have not."

"Well, you can look this by the way, but it's a nickname for the City of Vernon, in Washington California, that for about a decade in the 50's and 60's had disproportionately high amounts of amputations and accidental dismemberments and mutilations, usually from people who had gotten insurance policies that gave ridiculously high payouts for limb loss shortly before the 'accident.' For a decade, roughly two-thirds of all the insurance claims for limb loss in the country came from Vernon." I blinked. "The general consensus is that the city's population were deliberately mutilating themselves for the insurance money. This was before we had parahuman healers and tinker-tech medicine and procedures, once those limbs were off they were off for good. Self-mutilation for money is a lot less risky now."

"Okay then. Well, that's a rather... enlightening opinion on a controversial subject," Patricia said, diplomatically, "but we seem to have gotten a bit off topic. This interview is supposed to be about you, but we've spoken more about Canary."

"Oh, there's a reason for it," I began, "There was no probable cause, no proof of wrongdoing deliberate or otherwise, the trial was a sham, and Paige's sentence was illegal. From arrest to conviction, it was a blatant screwover. And nobody. Did. A damn. Thing." I took a deep breath. This was going to be another painful part. "If something that blatant gets done to a celebrity who surrendered and fully cooperated up until her rights were stripped from her, what do you think happens to people like my friend Rachel? What do you think happens to people like me?"

"I fled to the streets," I continued, "I ran, I joined a team of villains, and I did all of that instead of surrendering and trying to explain my side of the story, because after being chased from my home and being attacked on sight, after being named the target of a huge manhunt when Kaiser and Lung were still at large, after a Ward tried to kill me twice, I figured that I was never going to get a fair chance. Canary's trial and conviction? That whole travesty told me that I was right."

"I don't know if anybody noticed, but I was kind of missing a hand for a while. Armsmaster has my original right hand in his lab somewhere. He's running tests on it because I was too afraid to say he couldn't or try to take it back from him." My breathing was getting heavy. "He called me an organism. I'm not even a person to these people. After what happened to Canary…" I took a moment to swallow my anxiety. "If they get their hands on me, I'll be lucky if I get drugged into a coma and wake up in the Birdcage without having even gotten a trial. I've already been threatened with the Cage. Or maybe I'll just disappear somewhere."

I curled up into myself. Saying all of that out loud. It made it all feel more real. I was sitting here while there was a manhunt out for me, while there was a very real chance that Armsmaster, or Miss Militia, or another one of the Heroes I used to look up to could kill me, or worse...

"Taylor, I have to ask again: Do you need a moment?"

"No." I took a breath and went on. "Actually, I think I'm done. I've said everything that I have to say."

"Alright then," Patricia said, "well, thank you for your time and I sincerely hope that things somehow work out for you."

"Thank you," I replied, "and uh… the thing? Use it. Use the whole thing if you can."

"Will do," she finished and soon the communication ended. I went to my fridge to get something to drink. I only had the one beer left, so I grabbed the drain cleaner. I was tired all of a sudden. that had… I hadn't expected that talking would take so much out of me. I thought back to… Before. Sometimes Dad would come home, on a day where he'd have a meeting, or be negotiating to get work for his boys or trying to get the fairy back up and running, and even though he was just talking he'd come home exhausted. Was this what that was like? I'd have to call him later and ask.

I pulled a couple of zerglings back to guard the sewer side entrance into my room. One of them puffed itself up, making it look bigger as it stood by the whole into the sewers, while another came up to me and presented it's head while giving me a wide-eyed expression. I gave it a few pats on the head.

When I finished my drink I laid down. I felt out to Rachel in her pod, to borrow a piece of the contentment she felt in whatever happy dream she was having and focused on that instead of my own concerns as I closed my eyes and laid for a nap.

All Hail Empress Taylor

I awoke with a startle and shot up from my bed. There was someone in the tunnels.

It was a man. He was dressed like one of the city's maintenance workers, but the military crew cut and the serious but unconcerned expression on his face tipped me off that he wasn't what he appeared to be. He was approaching slowly, entering from the sewers, and not even trying to hide his presence. When he noticed that one of my zerg spotted him, he just stopped moving and raised one hand in a gesture of surrender, the other held a briefcase or something along those lines.

"I don't know if you can hear me through your little friends here," he said, obviously referring to me. I had a zergling nod, and he continued. "We work for the same boss. He's got some stuff he wanted to be delivered to you."

I had a couple of zerglings gesture him to follow and escort him over, then I got out of bed. I checked the time and-damn! My interview would have aired a couple of hours ago. I hadn't thought I was that tired, but… No matter, I had a computer, I could check to make sure it aired and went well in a minute but still, I was out that long?

I turned to the entrance just as the man who claimed to work for Coil approached, and from his slightly startled expression it had had the effect I'd intended. There was something in his emotions I didn't like. Pity, I think. "What's in the case?"

"Two things," he said, having composed himself and returned to 'all business' mode. "The boss recently got his hands on a large amount of a highly addictive narcotic. He says it's called 'candy.' There are about 12 strong doses in here, the boss thinks you might like some based on your habit of adapting to every drug you can find."

"And?"

"And..." There was the pity again. "One of the boss's spies in the PRT got ahold of some info. There are some files on a flash drive that he thinks you should see. Learn it from us instead of from them." He handed me the case. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry."

That was… Concerning. I dismissed the man and, when he was out of earshot I opened the case and immediately took the drive to my laptop. A sick feeling crept into my hearts as I waited for the computer to boot and the files to load.

Here we go. It was some official-looking documents… Requests for Dragon to investigate my tunnels, I already knew about that… The Barnes and Hess families had been taken into protective custody after the girls confessed to the locker, and… So the PRT knew the truth and they still weren't doing the… I don't know what I expected of them after everything else that'd happened.

There were transcripts of conversations between Armsmaster and Dragon and request forms from Armsmaster for samples of various drugs and toxins and… The fucker was going to use a Bonesaw virus on me!? The hell!? And…

I stepped back and started doing every breathing exercise I could think of. That last file, that was… in, out. In, out. In. out… "Fuck!" I got up and started pacing. I tried some of that candy drug, eating the whole fucking vial to see if it would take the edge off for even a few seconds but no, it didn't help.

I noticed that I'd been clenching my fists hard enough to drive my claws into my palms and my alien blood spilled to the floor as I straightened my fingers. As I waited for my flesh to mend, I went to my fridge, grabbed my last beer. I downed it in one big gulp, shattered the bottle on the floor, then chased it with a bottle of vodka and a half-gallon of bleach. After a moment of thought, I grabbed the flash drive and marched out through my tunnels to head toward PRT HQ.

...My dad was wanted for aiding and abetting an S-Class criminal. Lethal force had been authorized "if necessary" against him and my friends, and Calvert had gotten a kill order with my name on it, citing my "dismemberment of a PRT Officer", "telepathic and psychokinetic abilities reminiscent of the Simurgh," "similarities to the Siberian including cannibalistic tendencies," and "potential to create a new Ellsberg" as the reasons for it being employed. They were going to kill me because I looked like a bunch of scary capes. Whatever, if they're coming after me with everything they've got, then it ends tonight.

*end*

Having some trouble, can't do normal formatting.


	33. Lull 404

**Lull 4.04**

I'd had time to compose myself on my march through the sewers. I didn't feel better, exactly, but there was something oddly calming about finally facing these bastards with a purpose. I wasn't completely sure what I was going to do, but I had a general plan. I'd just have to get inside the building and do what I had to do and then it'd all be over.

There was a manhole cover right in front of the PRT building. Despite the tumultuous emotions trembling through my body, I retained enough awareness to check for people in the street. I did my best to center myself and sense for psychic presences. Finding no one, I ascended from the sewers onto the street. I didn't know if the PRT had street-facing cameras, but I was pretty confident that they did and between that and the glass exterior I estimated that I had maybe a minute, tops before they knew I was here.

So I sprinted towards the entrance and blew the doors in with a burst of telekinesis, Taking them from their hinges and shattering the reinforced, probably tinker-made glass around them as I entered the building.

This late at night, there were no tourists visiting the PRT and no fans buying merch from the now-closed gift shop. There was just a lobby with a clerk at the front desk and a couple of token guards. The woman at the desk looked at me with wide eyes and then reached for something behind her desk as the guards mobilized, going from "just for show when the tourists are here" to "actual law enforcement operatives" at the drop of a pin.

Three guards came at me. They had full PRT armor but no foam or guns. Just batons and tasers, but they still charged me weapons drawn even though they certainly knew who I was and could plainly see that I wasn't dressed for diplomacy. Good on you boys, earn your paychecks by attacking someone you know could kill you with a thought if she was so inclined. Nobody would ever say that the PRT's ground troops weren't brave or dedicated to the job.

I took a taser dart to my neck and lazily blocked baton with my left forearm when I heard a fourth guard call something in. "Lone Hostile in the lobby, Empress on scene. I recommend that someone move to guard the brownies. I repeat, guard the brownies."

What the fuck kind of code was 'guard the brownies?' I mean, it had to be code, right? There's no way that they were talking about actual brownies. I couldn't feel any interference around him-Armsmaster had yet to share his psychic-jamming tech with the grunts, I guess. I just forced my way in and latched onto his surface thoughts to sate my curiosity and-The fuck?!

I was so shocked by the stupidity that I actually failed to stop a guard's baton from striking me in the face. (Not that that was an issue.) They'd brought the Barneses into protective custody and instead of keeping them at a safe house or sending them out of town, they were keeping them _here_. Who the fuck was the idiot who thought _that_ was a good idea? The flash drive said they'd have been brought in And the whole Protectorate ENE was here? For reasons that this guy wasn't aware of.

...Okay, that worked for me, but not only is Director Calvert an asshole, he's also fucking retarded.

...And it probably meant that whoever was defending the PRT HQ would think I was after them and not for… Didn't matter, it'd all be over tonight, one way or another. These guards were useless to me, however, so after my token struggle, I grabbed the four of them with my psionic power and gently shoved them towards the wall, each of them immobile but one swearing, before slowly walking up to the woman at the desk.

"Hello," I said as tranquilly as I could manage. "Could you direct me to the stairs? I have an appointment but I'm trying to watch my figure." Actually, I was pretty sure that the elevator was on lockdown. Restrict mobility through the base, keep the invading threat localized while you come around the long way. That's just common sense.

The woman gulped. I suppose that even working for the PRT, that she never expected to see a villain close up. I could read her mind to check, but honestly, I didn't care.

Behind me, another squadron of PRT Troopers had come into the room from the hole I blasted in the front and was taking position. I turned around and saw that they were bunched up in formation and that one of them had one of those fucking foam grenade launchers aimed right at me while the others have sprayers and launchers aimed around me. None of them had regular guns… It kind of made sense that they wouldn't use bullets on me, it was documented that they were useless, but still, only foam?

It was a bit weird how having a purpose and expecting to see them made them… Okay no, I was still terrified of the damn things, but the emotions I already felt drowned it out and allowed me to stay outwardly calm as I rushed them.

A few grenades flew at me, and just before it made contact I pulsed and sent them right back at the agents and a shout of "Shit" was the only sound made before a squadron of PRT troopers was encased in its own foam. I tried to think of a quip but between the frustration that the agents felt and the sounds of their struggling kept me from coming up with anything good.

I turned from them just in time for Mouse Protector to teleport into the lobby and point her sword at me. She sighed. "Real talk?" she began, "I'm disappointed. I was really pulling for you."

I scoffed. "Yeah, well, saw much that helped, didn't we?." I raised my left hand and beckoned her towards me.

She proceeded to hold her form and not move at all. At first, I was surprised by the lack of aggression but then I could suddenly hear rapid footsteps. Then I got punched in the head. Like, not enough to hurt, really, but the fact that I didn't see it coming was kind of irritating.

I refocused just in time to get a brief glimpse of Velocity before he sped off and struck me again. The man was moving faster than I could see and… Okay, he couldn't hit me hard enough to hurt but being hit so many times by someone that I couldn't see was annoying and-ah damn he got me in the nose!

That actually hurt. While I tried to reorient myself, he grabbed me and flipped me to the floor. Then I felt a slash cut through the carapace on my back and I cursed. Armsmaster must have outfitted Mouse Protector with a blade made of the same stuff as his halberd. Mouse Protector flipped me onto my back with a kick and put the tip of her sword at my throat.

I could see Mouse's eyes through her helmet, she did look a little disappointed. "You were this close, kid."

I rolled my eyes. She was Protectorate and the docs said the kill order went into effect two days ago. Whatever pity and disappointment she felt was worthless now.

Then I caught sight of a vent. It was high up, and in a corner out of most people's reach, but it looked big enough for me to squeeze through.

I took a deep breath, and then psionically grabbed the two capes and held them far apart, away from me enough that I could stand up unmolested other than Velocity's sudden yelp and Mouse's sudden piercing stare… She had a rep for being rather talkative and had been so the last time we met, so her being so quiet was actually a bit unnerving.

I checked the flash drive-I'd kept a solid grip on it so that I wouldn't lose it, but I was worried about it having been damaged when I hit the ground. It seemed okay enough, which was good. People needed to know why I was doing this.

I braced myself and with a psychic assisted leap, I burst clear through the vents' grate and… Yeah, the air vent actually did support my weight. Was PRT HQ built by a movie buff? I quickly checked the flash drive again and then started to inchworm my way through the vent, dropping my hold on the two heroes once I was deep enough in.

It was then that I realized that I had no idea what the layout of PRT HQ was like, let alone where the vents went or if they'd even take me towards where I wanted to be, but it was too late to go back now, and it's not like there was enough room to turn around.

I had to climb at a few points and noticed a grate leading into a room full of weights, blocks of ballistics gel, and what looked like a truck. Rather than question its existence, I moved on.

After a bit of climbing around a bit in a twisty bit of vent and startling the hell out of some agents who were trying to suit up in a hurry when they saw and heard me crawl past a grate that peaked into a locker room, I found a long stretch of vent.

My elbows and knees were starting to get numb, so I decided to give my psychic muscles another flex and replicated my levitation trick from the sewers to zoom down. A minute later, I was in freefall as I hadn't noticed the sudden drop halfway across.

I burst through a ceiling grate and hit the floor below me with a thud. I had no idea what floor I was on but past the pain of the impact and the disorientation I felt from the fall, I could feel two bits of white noise and someone with particularly dulled emotions. I managed to flip myself up just in time to see Vista, Aegis, and Weld staring at me before the hallway abruptly started expanding and stretching.

The hall was now twice as wide and tall where _they_ were, half the size where I was, sloped downward, and the three Wards seemed to be at least a mile away. Either Vista was drastically underselling her powers or she was pushing herself to the absolute limit.

So I turned around, and saw that the hallway led directly to the elevator… The door was open, but I was pretty sure that it'd been disabled so I dismissed it as a dead end and turned back around just in time to see that Aegis was flying at me very fast and carrying Weld, who he then threw at me.

I tried to stop him with my telekinetic powers but his momentum was greater than the force I could build up. The way the hall was warped, I had no way to dodge and a heavy metal teenager, who'd moved to punch me mid-air, hit me dead on and knocked me straight into the elevator. I was thus to dazed to react when Aegis landed in front of it and slammed his hand on a button, which closed the door and trapped me inside.

I messed with the buttons to no response. Nothing else to do, I checked to make sure that the fall hadn't damaged the flash drive, then waited. Either I was wrong about the elevators being off, or they'd open up and the Wards would be reinforced with someone from the Protectorate or some agents with more of that fucking foam.

The door opened up and I was shot with about eight darts from Miss Militia at the far end of what looked like a different hall. She had a helmet on that she didn't normally wear. Then Armsmaster with two Halberds, one in his hands and one at his back instead of his traditional one, entered my field of vision with a whirl and stabbed me in the left boob with a colossal syringe poking out of his weapon, with some strange fluid being pumped directly into my body.

I dropped the flash drive as my arms relaxed against my will and fell slack. My vision started to go and I swooned a little.

My head was swimming. "You stabbed me in the tit."

"According to Panacea's notes on your physiology, that's the easiest way to inject something directly into one of your hearts."

"You still stabbed me in the tit!" I said. "Not cool dude." Was the room spinning? I laughed. "You know what the fucked up thing about this is? You were one of my favorites." I kind of started leaning to the right without meaning to. "I even had the Armsmaster brand underwear," I laughed again while Armsywarmsy made a funny noise.

"...Regardless, you should be losing consciousness… now." Despite what he said, I was still awake. I laughed at him.

"...You've just been injected with several doses of varying intensity of a cocktail of parahuman derived drugs and toxins," the blue-armored-jackass explained slowly, "including but not limited to several powerful sedatives, paralytics, muscle relaxants, narcotics, mild hallucinogens derived from research into Newter's power, and an immunosuppressant of my own design that should stop you from adapting to them until well after they run their course." He was quiet for a second. "And just to make sure, we complimented it with a dosage of concentrated carfentanil that should, based on BMI and weight calculations, be lethal to the vast majority of the world's population of healthy blue whales. Quite simply, you should not be conscious. Anyone else would have died of toxic shock near immediately."

"You said that some of your drugs are based on Newter's shit?" I asked. "Yeah, I'm immune to his secttree… sextant… secundus… juices. Swapped spit with him weeks ago. Totally worth the five bucks..." Wait, Lisa'd paid for that.

Mastarmser's was response was a perfectly eloquent "...fuck."

I put a hand on his armored chest and pushed him out of the way so I could stumble out of the elevator and into the hallway, which resulted in him backtracking to be in front of me again and swapped halberds. He pointed the swapped in one right between my hearts with a click the blade got really, really blurry.

"This is a weapon I specifically designed to-"

I poked it and then my finger disappeared.

"...Kill an endbringer," he finished lamely. "And now that you know what it's capable of, don't… don't make me use it on you."

I spread my arms wide, splashing him with some blood from my finger-stump "Go ahead. Do it." He didn't move. "No, seriously, do it. Kill me. It'll be easy. I'm… I'm not even a person. I'm a fucking _organism._ "

He frowned, clearly recalling the incident where he'd gotten my hand. "...That's not what I meant."

"I heard what you fucking said!" I shouted. "Just do it you pussy!"

Armsmaster was silent, the two of us starring each other down, for what felt like minutes. With a click, the blurring turned off. "No." He said. He looked at me really close. "If you want to die so badly, then you can do it yourself. I will not play a part in your suicidal temper tantrum." He changed position, holding his weapon defensively instead of threatening me with it.

No. He didn't get to decide this! These fuckers had burned away any bridge to a peaceful resolution to this there had ever been. The only way this ends is if I do or every last one of them is gone. The only way this ends without my friends, my dad… It had to end tonight. It was the only way it didn't end with everyone I care about going out with me.

I screamed. Not even words, just sound and without meaning to I pulsed. Armsmaster's armored seemed to anchor himself and he moved in a fluid but unnatural way, but the power of my psionics cracked the walls and sent he flying with divots from the floor stuck to his boots. I took my wrist and rubbed the water from my eyes while I marched… Er… stumbled down the hall towards Miss Militia.

Without a word, she shifted her weapon into an automatic rifle of some kind and took fire at me. A hail of bullets knocked the darts from earlier out of me and even left pockmarks and craters in my scales and carapace, but either the drugs or my natural toughness meant I didn't even stumble, let alone feel pain.

After a few seconds, she stopped shooting me and instead rolled a can or something across the floor. I looked down at it and then there was a bright flash and a bang and I was blind and disoriented. I'd probably have been pissed if I wasn't high as balls.

Then I got hit right in the chest by something that exploded and with a hiss, I was sealed in something, something tight and constructing, something that made it hard to breathe, something dark, something…

I screamed and sent out my psychic pulse, vaporizing the fucking foam and stripping the paint from the walls around me. I could see again, and I saw red. I charged Miss Militia down and bowled her over and kept moving.

Sometime later, I calmed down enough to notice the big, fat dart hanging from my neck. I plucked it from my neck and took a second to get my bearings… Where the fuck did my finger go and why did my blood smell like strawberry syrup?

That train of thought led me to the colors and flavors of my various internal parts and after ruminating on just how much I didn't like the color of my new kidneys, I realized that I may have just killed Miss Militia. Before I could panic about that too much, it occurred to me that there was something fishy going on.

A handful of Wards being on base made sense, and them mobilizing when I came in made sense… but why send me to the specific floor Armsmaster and Miss Militia were on? Did… Did they already have a protocol for if I attacked the-

-My thought was interrupted when a blur of red hit me and knocked me down a flight of stairs that I hadn't noticed.

I tumbled, bump bump bump, and I think my left shoulder broke or dislocated or something because when I landed my arm was splayed at a weird angle. I managed to flip up but the room was spinning again and I could make out Assault and Battery coming down the stairs. Then I noticed a handful of Agents armed with foam sprayers, though they didn't deploy them. Then Mouse Protector teleported in and had her sword at my throat. "Look, kid, lets just-"

I grabbed her in my telekinesis and gently tossed her at Battery. The sudden motion made her drop her sword, which I caught… blade first, cutting my palm. Assault and Battery, meanwhile, moved to catch the rodent I threw at them. Being speedsters, they succeeded. Turns out that when super speedsters go to catch a super athlete, you get an impromptu cheer routine. The heroes who were either lovers, siblings, or both set down the mouse who looked pissed from what I can tell

Then with another burst of speed, they moved around me and I was pinned between speedsters and agents. One bit of psionic interference vanished and a quick check indicated that Mouse Protector teleported away. I couldn't read expressions or feel Assault and Battery's emotions, but I didn't think they'd take me as seriously as they should. Seriously enough for this mess to end. There wasn't a vent this time. I looked back to the agents. There were readable. Fear and nerves coupled with… wait a second. I dug into one's head and-Damn it! The room they were keeping the Barnes in was in this hall. Motherfuck. Well, at least they'd be more likely to get serious.

"Okay," I slurred out, "who was the idiot who had the bright idea of taking people into protective custody and keep them fucking here instead of a safe house a few cities over…?"

"It was only for one night before we could move them out," Battery said. That wasn't… The documents said-

-Where'd Assault go?

The next thing I knew, I was being punted over Battery and crashing into the floor on the other side. I screamed and tossed Mouse Protector's sword off in their general direction. An Agent turned to run and the sword pierced his foam canister, triggering an explosion that foamed up the entire hallway except for a tiny part of the stairwell.

Fuck it, I'll take it. I'm either really lucky when I'm high or really good at improvising. Eh, if anyone asks I'll claim I did it on purpose.

Heros sufficiently incapped, I shuffled down the hall, not sure what else to do.

I could feel the mixed fear and determination, intermittent with other emotions, of various PRT Agents and other employees as well as a couple blobs of terror on this floor and the mixture of fear, guilt, self-loathing, and anger that I'd felt from Emma that day in the marketplace… Except for more fear. I paid them no mind and ducked into a women's bathroom as I walked by it, hoping to get a minute to think out my next move.

I caught myself in the mirror. There I was, a scaly blue monster with black tendrils instead of hair and a shell of silver bone instead of clothes. I was cut up, shot to hell, with bloodshot eyes, and missing a finger.

"...What am I doing?" I asked aloud. Even with the… "Why, why did I even come here?"

I knew the answer. I'd found out there was a bounty on my head, that all my worst fears had come true, and just decided to get it the fuck over with and then I lost my nerve the second I saw how fucked up I looked. The next thing I knew I was curled up under the sink.

"I'm so fucking pathetic," I mumbled. I thought I'd made so much progress but it only took one big shock for me to be the same kid I was at the beginning of all this… I'd promised everyone I'd check with Lisa or Brian before I did something reckless and yet here I was… I hadn't even stopped to think of what would happen with the Zerg if… How Dad or the others would feel if… How Rachel would react if she woke up and I was… I can't even bring myself to think the word. "So stupid. So pathetic. So..." What the hell was I supposed to do now? I'd attacked the PRT building… I couldn't back out now, after basically ruining everything we'd been working for, but…

I was breathing heavily and couldn't even see straight. I wiped my eyes. It was the drugs. It had to be the drugs.

Mouse Protector teleported into the room, with a different sword from the one she'd had earlier. That must be what she teleported away for earlier. She looked down at me. "Well, this is awkward."

"Just get it over with."

"...I'll need you to stand up first," she said. She sounded like she didn't know

Of course. Of course, she didn't get it. Did she really think she could just arrest me and the system would treat me like a regular criminal? With the Kill Order… I shoved her into the wall and then got up and stumbled out of the room, looking for either a way out of the building or someone who had the balls to finish the fucking job.

Which… I couldn't tell where anyone's emotions were anymore. Did Armsmaster do something with his psi-blocker tech or was it the drugs getting to me? I just stumbled wherever until I ran into someone or something.

Eventually, I stumbled up to Mister Lion Man, er… Triumph. He was standing guard over a nondescript door. He saw me coming and stepped forward to face me. "I'm afraid I can't let you go any further, Empress."

"What, are they keeping them in that room, or something?" I tried to point to the door he was guarding but then I remembered that my finger had disintegrated.

Triumph was silent.

"Oh my God, they are, aren't they?" I looked between him and the door, "What, did you shove them into an office or something?"

"I can't let you hurt them," Triumph said.

I scoffed. "I'm not after them… Fuck, I used to sleep over at the Barnes house… The bitch was like my sister till she turned evil… If I wanted them dead I'd have done it months ago."

"If you're not here for them," Triumph said, "then why are you here? If you want the PRT torn down, I'd have thought you'd have let public outrage after your interview do the job."

"Shut up, I know what, I know what you're planning..." I lost my balance and had to brace myself against a wall and was forced to look down. Have I always been twelve feet tall?

"...Empress," Triumph asked, "are you drunk?"

"Can't get drunk," I said quickly. "Armster… Armshamster… He and Missile-itia pumped me full'a drugs. Said it was enough to kill a whale." I laughed and slowly shook my head. "I don't think he was joking."

"Well," he said, "you should leave. Before you do something permanent and regrettable."

I waved him off. "Like what? You fucks are never gonna let up."

"I don't know what it is you think we're planning," Triumph began, "but it's my understanding that your father, as well as a team from the Mayor's office, are working towards clearing your name. If you're legally proven innocent, we'd _have_ to leave you alone. We've been radioing in after every encounter. So far you've done a little property damage, but you haven't seriously hurt anyone yet. If you hurt someone here though, you could jeopardize that."

"Bullsshhit Trio… Trumpet... Triumph." I slurred. "I've seen the docs, this isn't gonna end till you're gone or I'm dead... An' bullshit on any of you fuckers thinking I'm innocent, either."

Triumph said nothing. He just did the last thing I'd have ever expected.

He took off his helmet.

I blinked. "...What are you…?"

"My name," he said, "is Rory Christner. The Mayor's son. My father's been working with yours. I've seen some of the investigations into what happened back in January." He took a minute to make sure I was paying attention. I was a bit too gobsmacked by the unmasking to say anything. "My Dad thinks that you're innocent of what you were initially pursued for, and I believe him. And I've seen you. You're not a monster. I think that if you just wait a little longer, everything will work out. But you have to leave now before you do something you can't take back."

Did he know? Did he know the real reason I'd come here? Did Armsmaster tell people, or was this all a coincidence? Still. "No, no way, there's no way you think that." I'd seen the documents. If he'd thought that, he'd have tried to argue against…

"You can read minds, can't you?" He said. "Armsmaster's inhibitor is in the helmet. Without it, my mind is exposed and unprotected. You can dive right in and see if I'm telling the truth or not."

And I did… Or, I tried. It was, it was really hard to focus on my telepathy right now. Even once I got it, Triumphs mind was like a bar of wet soap, almost impossible to get a grip, a read on. I ended up just awkwardly staring him in the eyes for a full minute before I could get a grip on it and pressed in deep.

He believed what he was saying. That much was obvious just from the surface but I wasn't satisfied yet. I started rooting around for everything the PRT had on me… I couldn't exactly get a good read on most of it right now, but it was mostly… Shadow Stalker claimed I attacked her… Cuts on her arms… No, that was why they'd sent people to my house… Oh, that… I can't even call her a bitch because that would insult Rachel. The whole reason the fucking PRT was after me was because the psycho who made me trigger was lying her ass off about it!

I had to stop. I was breathing heavily enough that it was disrupting my concentration.

"Kill Order."

"I'm sorry," Triumph said, "what do you-?"

"Do. I. Have. A kill order?" It was a simple yes or no question.

"Not as far as I know. Why, is th-" I raised a hand to silence him and dived back into his mind… Nothing. As far as Triumph knew, there were talks about a pre-signed order in case I went Full Nilbog and something vague about the Wards at Department Q3.

I sighed. So… either they didn't tell anyone about the Kill Order, or I jumped the gun… Or I'd b-

There was the sound of a gunshot and then I felt to the floor. My right leg actually hurt a little, and it felt like there was something really hot embedded in my shin.

"Bitch! …Sorry, Bitch." I flipped over, noticed a hole in my leg, and saw Miss Militia coming down the hall, gun trained on me. She was limping a bit, but otherwise, she seemed fine… Which would have been a relief if she hadn't just shot me.

So I psycicked the door off the wall and threw it at her. She responded by shooting the door, which was a mistake as the explosion of shrapnel still hit her and probably did more damage than I was intending.

I heard Triumph curse and shove his helmet back on while muttering something about defusing the situation.

Then I realized that someone was screaming and I remembered who was in the room I'd just torn the door off of.

Okay, being high off my ass, badly hurt, bleeding, and now someone screaming… It made it really, really hard to keep my head in the game.

I made to crawl away, trying to decide if the thumping I was haring was real or in my head, but I made the mistake of crawling past the door and someone inside spotted me.

"You!" I heard Emma's broken, terrified but somehow also angry voice shout. I have to imagine she was glaring at me or pointing, but honestly, I was too tired or too high to care enough to look. "It's your fault we had to leave our house in the middle of the night! You're the reason I have to sleep in an office because there were no secure busses out of town! Why can't you just leave me alone, I was never anything but nice to you!"

I heard Armsmaster's voice say "That's a lie." When did he get here? I turned and looked up and saw him stepping out of what looked like a false wall… I think there were stairs behind it? Was that the thumping? I think that was the thumping.

Emma stammered. "I-I don't know what you're-"

"My Helmet is equipped with several features, Miss Barnes," Armsmaster interrupted, "mostly combat or surveillance related, but also including a lie detector feature for use in interrogation or, in combat or hostage situations, to tell if a hostile is bluffing." I heard a man gasp or something. Alan about to complain? "It's not legally admissible, yet, but it's accurate enough, and your statement that you were only nice to Empress registered as a lie."

"What does that matter?" I heard Emma say. "She's there right now. Why are you calling me a liar instead of putting her down or whatever you do to capes as dangerous as her!?"

"Well, for one, she's currently bleeding on the ground and high off her ass," Armsmaster said… Was he prideful about that last bit? "She's currently not a threat… In fact, she probably needs medical attention as she is bleeding quite profusely." I was not. I looked down at my shot leg and-hello. I didn't realize my blood was quite that purple. "However, there's something on this flash drive that she dropped makes that particular lie of yours… rather interesting." He sounded mad and-wait, when did I drop the flash drive? Oh yeah, the elevator.

"Why are the elevators running?" I asked. "Did, did you not have this place put on lockdown when I hit."

"Aegis has a remote key to bypass the lockdown and was preparing to use it to evacuate as per my orders when you dropped in," Armsmaster explained automatically, "now, among several real but edited documents and several other convincingly faked documents, among them a phony Kill Order-"

"IT WAS FAKE!?" I could literally see red. I was going to kill Coil. I would grab him, I would rip off his arms and legs at the shoulder and hip, I would burn the stumps shut, and then I'd lock him in a little cage and make him watch as I butchered and cooked his arms and legs. Then I'd force feed him his own arms and legs so his liver would get nice and fat and then I'd rip it out and eat it with a nice chianti right in front of him and then watch him bleed to death. I'd-

"Of course it was," Armsmaster said oblivious to my wrathful vengeance planning. "It's a convincing forgery, but it takes months to get a Kill Order officiated and the judge who signed it doesn't seem to exist. A ten-minute google search would have turned that-Oh dear."

That was probably a result of my repeatedly bashing my head into the floor at my own fucking stupidity. I'd lost my cool and come all the way here, picking a fight with almost the entire Protectorate… Who were all at the PRT base instead of the Rig for some reason… intent on getting this whole fucking mess over with-intent on getting fucking killed! Because of something that I should have fucking known was…

I felt something gush out of the hole in my leg and I kind of sort of pulsed without meaning to. All of a sudden my head was a lot clearer and-hey, my finger was growing back! I chose to focus on that and not the existential angst that came with realizing just how easy it was for someone to lie and drive me to… That.

I stood to my feet and began staring at my finger as it slowly regenerated. From the corner of my eye, I could see that Miss Militia had stood up at some point. Her scarf was gone but the bruising on her face did a decent job of making her unrecognizable… granted, I didn't exactly have a good look at her, though I could see that her gun was once again on me.

I wasn't sure if Armsmaster was going for his own weapon or what, but I spoke anyway. "Don't mind me. I was never here to hurt anyone. Keep talking Armsmaster."

Everyone was silent for a minute. "...Among other documents was a report that the Barnes family, as well as the Hess family who refused protective custody this evening," Oh yeah. They'd been mentioned too. I'd forgotten that on the way over, "were brought into protective custody a week ago in response to one Emma Barnes and one Sophia Hess confessing to deliberately creating a biohazard and entrapping one Taylor Hebert in it, which would make them responsible for Empress's trigger event and resulting rampage-"

"It wasn't a fucking rampage! I had a panic attack and knocked over one bitch!" Speaking of bitches, my psionics were feeling much better now that my head was clear and… Did my blood turn black for a little bit? There was something black in the puddle of blood I'd been lying in.

Anyway, I could feel presences again… Actually, a lot more than I used to be able to feel at once. Regardless, I felt I was entitled to know why my best friend turned evil all of a sudden. She wasn't going anywhere.

"Sorry," Armsmaster said half-heartedly.

"That's bullshit!" Emma shouted. "We didn't' put her in there."

"See, that's another lie," Armsmaster said… Wait, was he mad? "The Parahuman Response Team and Protectorate have spent quite a lot of time, effort, and money pursuing Empress on testimonies to Agents investigating at Winslow given by you and your friends that she was delusional and dangerously unstable..."

I sort of tuned him out and dived into Emma's head. Deep down, poking around for memories. It was a lot easier than rooting around in Triumph's head, despite her's being a lot more messed up, and… There. A couple of years ago, I was at camp. She and her dad were in an alley and… Oh. Oh…

Oh.

My best friend hadn't turned evil. She'd gone insane because a fucking psychopath had gotten her claws in her when she was vulnerable.

I pulled out and looked into the room, Alan was holding Emma tight and telling her to stop talking. What, did she spill her guts while I was in her head? Doesn't matter, I've just got one thing that I need to ask her.

"Emma," I asked, "did you ever ask Sophia what she'd have done if you didn't fight back in the alley?"

"How do you-"

"Psychic. Also, you need like… All of the therapy."

"Fuck you! I'm not weak like-" I turned her out again. There were a lot more psychic presences than I was used to. A lot further out, too. I tried to focus out on everyone, to see just-Holy shit!

Thousands of people. I could feel the whole city… Some of them seemed familiar… There was Dad at the Dockyard… Lisa, in my room… Panicking. I sent a zergling to charade to her that I was okay but couldn't focus on it for long because there was something else. Someone drawing my attention. Someone afraid. Someone in pain, more than anyone else in the city.

I noticed that Armsmaster had a hand raised. "With all due respect, Deputy Director..." Talking on a communicator in his helmet? Yeah, I remember him doing that after I took out Kaiser. "This isn't the best… Well, if it's that important, patch him through… Hello…" then he grunted a few times. "That last one seems a little excessive… Alright… Oh. Okay. Triumph?" Triumph looked at him while I tried to figure out where, exactly, that one person was. "We're going to have to speak privately later. Miss Barnes? That was the chief of police. Among other things, he was informing me that there's a warrant out for your arrest on charges that include being an accessory to theft and assault and battery, deprivation of freedom, conspiracy to commit murder, and possibly something related bio-terrorism. Apparently, one of your lackeys sold you out."

Emma started screaming, so I tuned everyone out again… I'd talk to someone about her later. See about her getting help instead of the book thrown at her… We could never friends again, but it was one last favor I could give to the girl who'd effectively died in that alley.

I'd almost found whoever it was, the person in more danger than anyone else tonight. They were in a bad part of town… Not that far from the lair actually... And utterly terrified, enough to almost drown out everyone else in a two block radius. If I focused just right I could almost read their thou-

" _Get away. Need to get away. Left or right? Which-Ow. Gotta move fast. Odds of getting caught if I go left?_ "

...Someone was chasing a terrified little girl through the city in the middle of the night.

In _m_ y territory.

I started walking away. I heard someone ask "where do you think you're going" but I didn't catch who and I paid them no mind. Someone needed help. I had to get to her. I had to save her, and I had to get out of here and…

And then I vanished.


	34. Lull Interlude 1

**Lull Interlude 1**

He remembered Ellisberg. The shadows. The fear. The heroes abandoning them to die. His murder of his CO in the interest of self-preservation. Most of all he remembered the monsters. Some almost human but not quite. Others obvious beasts. Some as animals and others with the intellect of a person, albeit a fanatical person worshiping a False-God.

That's what made Empress so problematic. He hadn't been scared, not the way that Emily had, but he was wary about having someone so similar to Nilbog around. It was different when he thought she just had a minor tinker aspect concerning slime cultures and insects, but these 'Zerg' creatures…

Even that could have been workable if Empress hadn't been so… Unpredictable. Somewhere within her was some drive to assert herself and her dominance over her own life, if her name was anything to go on, but it was buried under a pile of deep-seated issues related to the events leading up to and following her Trigger Event. He had spent several timelines interrogating the other Undersiders on their more… tumultuous teammate and more on testing the things that triggered the girl's issues and how they might manifest.

A dozen deaths by dismemberment, four New Ellisbergs, three zombie apocalypses, and a single instance of Empress becoming the Butcher, among other eventualities, later, Thomas Calvert decided that everyone but _especially_ he himself would be happier and safer if Taylor Hebert was either dead or secure in the Birdcage lest something set her off and prompt her to kill them all. The less said about the timeline where she stumbled upon Noelle, the better. Even he had to shudder at the Hell that was unleashed.

Though in three timelines she responded to the stressors he induced by making attempts on her own life, and that did leave him with valuable information on how to go about eliminating her.

Initially, he'd considered sending the Travelers to assassinate her. However, test timelines showed that, while Sundancer was more than capable of inflicting fatal injuries, she was reluctant to do so outside of very specific circumstance and the Travelers tended to suffer heavy casualties. As eliminating Empress tended to alienate the Undersiders or else end with them as collateral damage, such losses were unacceptable.

Besides, he still had aims for the Alcott girl. A carefully crafted package of falsified documents to outrage Hebert just right mixed in with just enough legitimate documents to make it seem real and a powerful narcotic that he knew for sure that she'd never been exposed to, to compromise her judgement for just one second, and the toxic asset had run off to the PRT where between Armsmaster's measures against Empress and Miss Militia's willingness to do what must be done... and apparent dislike for Empress, something to do with the perception that she was trying to milk her Trigger Event to avoid responsibility, it was almost guaranteed that Taylor Hebert would be slain. Even if she were to be captured alive, chances were good that her 'unprovoked' attack on the PRT would burn any sympathy she'd earned from the public and coupled with the extreme circumstances it would be easy for him, as the Interim Director, to have her shipped to the Birdcage without trial. If she didn't take her own life in captivity before then, that is.

It was trivially easy to pull Shadow Stalker aside under the pretenses of talking with her about her obviously falsified report(Thomas found it somewhat comical that Emily for all her paranoia took the words of a convict at face value simply because she happened to be able to passably play the part of a reformed felon,) and steer the conversation in such a way that, four timelines later, Miss Hess was terrified for the safety of her friend, Empress's former friend, and threatening murder if 'that freak' laid a finger on her. That gave him a convenient excuse to bring the girl and her family into PRT Custody 'for the night' and by extension a reason to have the entire Protectorate under one roof 'just in case' and in position to deal with Empress when she arrived to rampage through the building as well as a reason for said attack if anyone asked questions about why she attacked. And thus all of the regularly active heroes in the city would be too occupied to foil his attempt on the Alcott girl.

The best part was that nobody suspected a thing. Idly, Thomas wondered if he should take up the fiddle as he was quite good at playing people like it.

And that was how he found himself sitting in the securest room in his lair, watching a feed of the PRT's security cameras on a multi-monitor set up, while giving instructions via radio to a team of Tinker-Tech armed mercenaries who were pursuing the Alcott girl. In one timeline, he watched as Empress stared at her own blood covered hands as she kneeled over Miss Militia's mutilated corpse. Armsmaster stood behind her, his nanothorn weapon at the ready. The camera wasn't close enough to see the expression on his half-face, but the swing of his halberd did more than enough to show his anger at the death of his comrade.

Thomas smiled at the irony of Empress dying at Armsmaster's hands. Mister Wallace had taken great offense at the implication that the measures he was creating to neutralize her were meant to be lethal. Once it had been determined that the situation had escalated due to misunderstandings, he had been the one who suggested that the girl be offered probationary Wardship at Quarantine Zone 3 where her creations could roam free and she could do good by helping to contain and destroy the Machine Army. And yet...

It was then that the squad-leader of his deployed Mercenaries called in. "Boss, we've got the girl. She gave us a surprisingly good chase, but we've got her sedated in the back of the van."

"Bring her in."

"Copy that."

In the other timeline, a feed showed Empress, Armsmaster, and Triumph talking before the door that led to the office the Barnes were in, Empress oddly calm… It seems that some fluke had defused the situation.

The radio clicked on. "Boss, we lost track of the kid. Fork in the road, as instructed I am calling in for directions."

Rather than reply, Coil simply decided to drop that timeline-a total victory in the other gave him no reason not to.

And then he felt the barrel of a pistol at the back of his head and hard the clicking of revolver's hammer being pulled back. But _only_ in the timeline where Dinah was his and Empress was dead. His self-control allowed him to avoid showing surprise as he stood and turned to face the his hands in a false surrender.

"If you collapse the other timeline," a woman's voice declared, "I will kill you. If you collapse this timeline before I conclude my business with you, my counterpart in the other will find you and she will kill you. Do you understand?"

Thomas nodded, and the gun was pulled back. Slowly and calmly he stood and turned to face the intruder while in his failed timeline he carefully left the room and made for a room where he kept an emergency backpack filled with supplies he'd need if he ever had to flee town in a hurry.

In the timeline where he was threatened, he saw his attacker to be a Mediterranean woman, dressed in an expensive suit and with a stylish fedora settled neatly upon her dark hair. She was standing in the corner of his locked room as though she were not at all out of place.

In that timeline, he spoke to her. "To what do I owe this visit?" Cauldron's Enforcer was in his presence but only in a single timeline. Whatever the reason, the why of that was information he would need.

"You are aware that the most powerful precognitive powers in the world belong to us," she said. Clearly referring to the organization to which she belonged.

"Yes," he answered.

"Then I'm going to explain to you why, exactly, you are going to collapse this timeline so that the other, where you fail in tonight's endeavor, becomes real."

Thomas, imperceptible to the woman due to his mask, blinked. "And why would I do that?"

Then, in the timeline where he was victorious, his radio clicked back on. "Boss, we've got a situation! Empress's creatures-"

And then the feed cut off.

"She isn't dead," the woman said, "it takes more than a simple decapitation, even by a molecular weapon, to slay her and Armsmaster isn't aware that he needs to finish the job." That was rather unsettling news. It almost chilled his blood. "Unfortunately her subconscious drive to live outweighed her conscious desire to die, triggering her creations to come and retrieve her body so that it could be repaired. However, without her to guide them and no previous orders to fall back on, the creatures defaulted their primal instincts: To consume and evolve," she said evenly, with no show of emotion. "Every living thing that is not them will be killed for biomass and inorganic structures will be torn apart for chemicals and minerals. They will expand and this city will be a second Ellisburg by the morning light-Do not drop this timeline until I finish my explanation."

Thomas was cowed from doing so, though he wasn't sure he wanted to know what other reasons there might be, as New Ellisburg was one of the reasons he'd arranged her death in the first place. If the news that Empress still lived in this timeline had nearly chilled his blood, that the understanding of what he was potentially responsible for made it run cold in full.

"At this moment, the girl is dreaming semi-lucidly," the woman continued. "Brooding over Miss Militia's death. The creatures will, within 24 hours, have retrieved and completely recreated her body. She will awaken, more powerful than ever for having adapted to this night's events, to find her friends and family dead and they along with countless innocents to allow her rebirth. She will be convinced that everyone was right and that she was a monster-she'd establish a self-imposed quarantine, creatures far more varied and powerful than those you have seen, to keep others away from her, safe from the monster. But she would fail to keep the Slaughterhouse Nine out-I am not finished yet, Mister Calvert."

It took every bit of self-control he had in his body to avoid shaking. He wasn't sure that he wanted to know what Cauldron's precognitives said would happen after that. He also wanted to know how she knew he was prepared to drop the timeline. Was Cauldron's enforcer a precognitive?

"In her mental state," the woman continued, unknowing or uncaring of his preference for ignorance, "Empress would easily fall victim to Jack Slash's manipulations and be led to embrace her nature as a monster… Which she would start by infecting the Nine and transforming them into creatures like her own." The woman paused, and Thomas couldn't help but ponder on that scenario. "With Bonesaw's expertise, Empress and her creatures would grow in power before marching on Ellisberg and consuming Nilbog and his creations and with the nature of Nilbog's goblins added to her own monstrosities Empress would expand out and the world would drown in Zerg. Our precognitives estimate a year at most. Then she would begin to push further, into Earth Aleph and beyond on a conquest of the Multiverse."

"Then I have no choice," Thomas replied coldly. "If it's between accepting failure or dooming the human race to extinction."

"If it consoles you," the woman continued, "you will be able to truthfully say that you have at least once in your life done the right thing at your own expense."

"What will become of me?"

The woman blinked, before continuing, in the same even tone as before. "You will live." A rectangular portal appeared behind her. "A word of advice. Tattletale will email you soon in the other timeline. Your life will be far more pleasant in the long term if you heed her words and follow her instructions to the letter… You will need the evacuation bag you're heading for, but not for at least a few more hours." She then stepped, backward, into the portal, which closed as she vanished through it.

With a sigh, Thomas collapsed the timeline and radioed in. "Apologies, there was an issue on my end. What is your status?"

"The mutant freak you've got working for you teleported in and kicked our assess," someone who was _not_ the squad leader said. "She took the girl down into the sewers… We'd better be getting paid extra for this shit."

Of course. After relaying platitudes and instructions, he altered his course from his current destination to an office and checked for this message that Tattletale was due to send him, finding that he'd received it just as Cauldron's enforcer left.

 _Dear Thomas Calvert AKA Coil AKA several other aliases listed in an attached document._

 _I will be frank: I am aware that you sold us out to Empire Eighty-Eight, leading to our capture shortly before the final confrontation, and arranged for the attack on the home of one Brian Laborn that resulted in the death of his father. I suspect the Empire Goons you paid off were meant to kidnap Aisha Laborn, to give you another chip to better control us._

 _I am also aware that on this night you delivered a composition of forged PRT Documents that took advantage of one Taylor Hebert's fears and insecurities to launch an attack on the PRT. It is only by the fact that the situation resolved itself peacefully and that the zerglings are surprisingly good at charades that your remaining lifespan is not measured in hours..._

It was humorous, in a dark way, that his pet Thinker was more right than she knew.

 _...If you'll check your various bank accounts, you will find most of them empty and closed. Simply put, all of your assets, liquid, as well as your various real and shell business, now belong to me and if there's any justice in the world then I will be sitting naked in a bathtub of what was until recently your money at the moment you read this missive._

 _I have left you with enough money to establish yourself elsewhere. If you have not vacated the city within 72 hours of receiving this message, we will find you and we will feed you to the zerglings. Feet first._

 _Love, Tattletale._

 _Ps. It's not fun when the gun is pointed at_ your _head, is it?_

As instructed, Thomas checked his bank accounts… Tattletale had missed a few, namely the ones with which he paid the Travelers… He'd do it. He'd leave town, as instructed, but he'd taken great care to keep Tattletale from learning that the Travelers were under his employ and thus he should be able to continue to keep Noelle contained and the Travelers on his payroll if only to keep an eye on things for him here.

He'd leave…. But first, he had a parting gift for the Undersiders. Even if it was in his best interests to leave, his pet Thinker needed to be punished for her insolence.


	35. Lull 405

**Lull 4.05**

I suddenly landed in the street and stumbled. Turns out I can teleport, which is something I wished I'd known about earlier. It'd have made a lot of things a lot easier. Or maybe this was something new, in which case it would have been nice to know it was on the table.

It took me a second at most to adjust. To my right was a scared little girl, twelve or thirteen at the most, with brown hair. She was clutching her head. To my left were half a dozen armed men. They were dressed in clothing that just screamed 'gangster' but didn't have any colors I recognized and all looked a little too old and were in too good of shape to be anyone local. A new group in town? They had assault rifles that looked like they'd been modded to some degree, but nothing obvious special.

"So," I said, "I see a bunch of grown men chasing a little girl… Part of me wants to ask why, but we all know that there's no possible answer you could give that won't make me kick your asses."

One of them had a more authoritative presence than the others. He went for his belt, he had a military surplus radio or something. I didn't know who he was calling but I wasn't going to let him finish. I raised a hand, palm up and with two fingers pointed to him and then waved them back to me. It was just for show, really, but while I was doing it I was seizing the man psionically and pulling him toward me. When he was in arms reach, I grabbed him by what I took to be his good arm and snapped it with a sharp twist. He'd barely had time to react before his arm was useless.

His buddies recoiled as he screamed and aimed their guns at me, but with a raise of my hand, I lifted them into the air and then, despite a fearful repetition of 'oh fuck' from one of the men, made them crash into each other half a dozen times. Then I dropped them onto the asphalt and chucked the leader at them. His walkie-talkie fell from his belt, and while their assailants moaned and writhed on the ground, I turned around to talk to the girl.

"Uh, hello," I said awkwardly as I kneeled down to talk to her more evenly. "Are you alright?"

"..N-no," the girl said. She was clutching her head and looked pained terrified, though I wasn't sure if it was of them or of me.

"Look, uh..." I was bad at this. "I know I look scary but I'm not gonna hurt you and I'm not gonna let anyone else hurt you, either."

"I know..." The girl answered. "Head hurts… Too many questions."

That… that was a question for later. "Look, uh… Let me get you out of here." We were in my territory, and this was no place for a girl her age to be alone in the middle of the night. She looked like she was a long way from home. Her clothes, pajamas, looked a bit too nice to be from around here, and her bare feet looked red, swollen, and bruised… I wasn't even going to try to guess how long she'd been running from these people, but she must have been exhausted.

After a few moments, we were down in the storm sewers with the girl riding my back, heading towards one of the nicer residential districts.

 **For The Swarm**

 _The sun warmed my skin as I ran through the jungle, my fingers and toes digging into the dirt. I had never seen plants or animals like the ones here, but the little lizard ones tasted alright._

 _There was one now. It heard the sound of the leaves as I ran through them and tried to run, but it couldn't get away before I pounced on it and tore its throat out with my teeth. I ate its flesh and drank its blood, then rolled back and let the sun warm my belly while I rested._

 _I had been here for a while. Ever since Taylor had put me in that cocoon. I didn't know if this was a lifelike dream or if that had been some kind of teleporter made of meat and goo, but I know that this place is amazing and I love it here._

 _I'd changed. My teeth were sharper, my hair was longer, and I was way more flexible. When I got back, I'd be able to run with the Pack instead of riding one of them._

 **For The Swarm**

So there I was, marching through the sewers with an exhausted little girl on my back, careful to make sure that her damaged feet didn't touch anything down here when I realized that I wasn't sure where she lived or if I was heading toward the right neighborhood.

"So… Little girl?"

"D… Dinah," the little girl supplied.

"Dinah?" I asked. "Where do you live? I'm sure your parents are worried about you."

"My parents are dead… They killed them." She said. That's a clawed foot in my mouth. "My fault. I didn't ask the right questions."

"I'm so sorry..." I started awkwardly, "So, do you...?"

"I have powers. I ask questions about the future," she explained. "And I get numbers on how likely things are to happen… They found out… wanted my powers... I found out they were after me and tried to… asked the wrong questions."

I blinked. "I didn't-"

"Earlier, there was a 78.727 repeating chance that I'd have to explain why they were after me to someone….. Didn't ask who, head hurt too much, but I figure you're what it meant."

"Okay," I said neutrally. "Now… Do you have a grandmother or an aunt I could take you too? Since..."

Since her parents were dead and I'd really rather not go anywhere near the police or PRT after what I'd done earlier tonight. I'd considered taking her to Dad and the Raiders, but I doubted that many people would be at the Dockyard this late at night and… And I really didn't want to explain what I'd been doing tonight to Dad.

So that left taking her to someone who can watch her and letting them call the cops or whoever.

"There's my Uncle Roy," she said.

"Uncle Roy, got it," I replied.

"Roy Christner," she continued. "The Mayor."

...I poked into her mind really quick to make sure she was telling the truth. She was, and now _I_ had a migraine because _she_ had a migraine. That's something to look out for in the future.

Well, it looked like I'd be paying off that debt. "Okay. You know, your cousin Rory helped me out a little bit ago."

"He did?"

"Yeah." It occurred once again to me that I didn't actually know where we were going, I was just heading in the vague direction of the nice part of town. I don't know where the Mayor's house was, either. "So uh… Where does the Mayor live again?"

 **For The Swarm**

 _It was dark and storming. The first time it had been anything but warm and sunny since I got here._

 _I scrambled to my feet and took off, looking for somewhere to wait out the rain but… Something felt wrong. Bad. Sad. Scared wrong._

 _Like, 'Rollo's drowning' wrong. Kinda. Made it hard to think. Was scared. Was nervous._

 _Found a cave. The cave was dry… But something was in here._

 _It was like a snake with arms and legs, a bit lopsided with one big arm and one little one, with a long goat beard, orange lights on its body, and armor like what Taylor's creatures had._

 _"Sit," it said. "There. Is. Much. To._ _ **Dis**_ _-cus"_

 **For The Swarm**

The Mayor hadn't been much for words when I dropped off Dinah. Considering what had happened to his sister and her husband, I couldn't blame him… Though he might have also been startled by my unannounced presence. I mean, I knew he was working with my dad, but still, S-class Monster Cape Supervillain on your doorstep? I still had a headache so I didn't poke in his head to make sure.

It was a nice neighborhood, nicest one in town… Nosey neighbors had probably seen me carrying Dinah up but at this point, I honestly didn't care.

"Look," I said, "uh… It's a long story, and she can explain it better than I can when she's feeling better but… You might wanna… Call a Doctor to get her checked out and-you've got a Security detail, right? I don't think the people who are after her would be stupid enough to come to the Mayor's house but..."

He didn't seem to have the words to answer and I didn't blame him and, not wanting to linger in case the police or PRT showed up, I turned to leave.

"Wait," Dinah called out from inside the Mayor's home… "Empress? 59.6% repeating odds that everything will turn out okay for you if everything keeps going the way it has been."

She grunted and fell silent… I think the exhaustion had finally taken her, and I left as I heard the Mayor close the door and rush to her. Better than half odds, I'd take that. I'd find some way to thank her, later, if her prediction came true.

Rory, out of costume and feeling panicked to my psychic senses, arrived just as I was getting to the street. Our eyes met briefly before I returned to the sewers which had over the last few months become more and more a home to me.

As I marched back to the lair, the rush of adrenaline I'd been feeling since the _Incomprehensible Rage_ that sobered me when I'd learned that Coil had set me up started to fade. That rush was soon replaced by a swarm of butterflies growing in my belly as I realized that I'd either cleared my name or ruined everything. And worse, I could feel Lisa from here and she was _pissed._

I stopped and decided that now would be an excellent time to try and teleport on purpose. I took a deep breath closed my eyes. I focused on my room and concentrated… Concentrated…

...Yeah, nothing. "Useless ass psychic powers," I muttered.

I sighed and started back on my way, doing my best to think of anything but my growing sense of dread.

 **For The Swarm**

 _"...And thus the only chance for your kind in countless realities is if. You. Stop. The. Gorger."_

 _"So Scion is going to kill us all, and you gave Taylor her powers to help try and stop him?"_

 _That was easy enough to get, once I got used to my new friend Dehaka's way of talking and figured out what 'essence' meant and who the Wasteful Gorgers were. Why had Taylor been so vague when she told us about aliens talking to her and the threat?_

 _"This. Is. Correct." Dehaka said. It was weird. He wasn't a dog, but I didn't have any trouble understanding him._

 _"Now what?" It was still raining outside the cave._

 _"Queen Kerrigan brought strength to the Swarm and the Packs when She. Reclaimed. Her. Humanity." He explained. "Human_ _ **Essence**_ _and Zerg_ _ **Essence**_ _together are stronger than alone. This is why Your Queen keeps the traits of Terrans, as do you. But with human Strength, comes Human. Flaws."_

 _I blinked. "...So we're gonna be assholes?"_

 _Dehaka's lips curled up slightly. Not enough to show teeth. He thought that was funny. "Your. Queen's. Soul. Is. Sick… She. Needs_ _ **support.**_ _" He pointed at me. "Terrans say that hounds are_ their _. Best. Friends. They provide Love. Support. Affection. Things that. Terrans. Need. To. Keep. Their. Souls. Healthy... Be her._ _ **Hound.**_ _"_

 _I was starting to feel a bit… Don't know, lighter? Dehaka kept talking. "Give. Your Queen. Support. Collect._ _ **Essence**_ _together. Grow strong. Help her grow strong. Slay the wasteful gorger and take his_ _ **Essence**_ _for your Swarm and Pack. We will. Speak. Again."_

I was going to ask why we couldn't just keep talking now when I was suddenly back in the cocoon Taylor had put me in. I thrashed for a bit, trying to get out before it threw me up onto the floor.

...Where was the breathing tube? Not like it matters, but… No, not important.

I pushed myself up with my hands and feet and shook the leftover goo. Then I stood up and looked at Taylor. I could _feel_ her. She was tired. Sad. Scared… She was looking at me. Her eyes were wide and I could actually tell what that meant. She felt bad about… I looked at myself in her mirror… I liked this. I felt great. She shouldn't be…

I looked back at her. I wasn't sure how I knew what to do, but I got the feeling that this would fix it. "Taylor? How do I look?"

 **For The Swarm**

Lisa was somewhat less pissed when I finally got home. She was sitting at my table, using my laptop, and occasionally petting the zergling I'd used to charade to her that I was alright.

"I hope you don't mind," she said without looking at me, "but I had to borrow your computer to steal all of our boss's money, fire his mercenaries, and tell him to go fuck himself with a rusty bread knife." She was quiet for a second. "So yeah, we're not gonna have to worry about Director Calvert fucking with you anymore. Especially once I finish sending this anonymous email full of evidence of his wrongdoings loaded with just the right buzzwords to get it marked a priority to every PRT Director on the Continent."

She dramatically pushed the enter key on my laptop. Then she went and used the mouse to actually send the email.

She finished up and then turned back to me. "Taylor. There's a lot that I want to talk to you about, but you're probably very tired." Now that she was saying it, I was feeling… Absolutely exhausted. "I'll leave you to rest, but first," she said, her emotions shifting to something far more… I couldn't tell. Scared? Sad? Hopeless? She looked me in the eyes and hers were watering. "I need you to promise me that if I leave you alone tonight that you'll still be here in the morning."

And that's when I started crying. I hadn't considered… Everything tonight…

I fell to my knees. "I promise. I-I'm so fucking pathetic."

"Taylor," Lisa said as she got up to kneel beside me. "You're a lot stronger than you think you are."

And then she hugged me. We stayed like that for a few minutes. "Okay," she whispered to me. "I'm gonna let you get some sleep. I'll break the news about everything to Brian in the… gentlest manner possible. And then you and I are going to have a long talk about… Taylor? I'm going to try and talk Brian into letting us go ahead with Operation Flew The Coop because you've got a problem and since it's gonna be _really_ hard to get you professional help for a bit, we're going to have to improvise."

"...I, I think I'm going to be okay," I said. "I, I think I'm gonna be okay, but..."

Lisa stared at me, sternly, for almost a full minute before relaxing and letting out a sigh of relief.

"Well, okay. I'll let you get some sleep then."

A few moments later, I was alone in my room. Except for Rachel, that is. I laid on my bed, trying to sleep. I couldn't. I couldn't stop thinking about everything that had happened tonight. Like I had earlier, I tried to borrow some of Rachel's pleasant dream to settle myself, but she wasn't sleeping so peacefully anymore.

It was then that I noticed that she was thrashing about inside the infestation pod. My hearts skipped a few beats and I jumped to my feat to free her, thinking something had gone wrong, but then it opened on its own and ejected her. That's right. It was supposed to do that.

She landed face down on the creep mat, then pushed herself up with her fingers and toes, arched her back, and gave a quick full-body shake to rid herself of the excess infestation goo. Then she stood up and I got a better look at her.

The experiment had been a failure: Rachel was Zerg, outside as well as in. She didn't look that different from me, exactly, but she was taller and more muscular. Not quite like a female bodybuilder, but not far off from it, either-broad-shouldered and muscular. Her scales were bigger than mine, looking kind of like a crocodile's and a pale green, layered thickly on her skin but thinner and a paler, almost white at her joints. Her carapace, positioned similarly to mine but noticeably thicker, was purple with orange at the edges. Her face was still in human colors, the scales thinning and shifting to smooth skin at her collar and fading into flesh tone midway up her neck, except for her eyes were violet on lavender with a faint glow. Her red hair had grown out into a wild, shoulder-length mane that hung back in natural spikes.

She had more armor than I did, on a second glance, at least in the shoulder-pad-carapace-things, with orange spikes that were a bit like the bones-spikes her dogs had poked about an inch out of her shoulders-four each, seeming semi-random in placement.

At least her face had stayed more or less the same.

As I looked over her body, I noticed that while my feet had stayed human, other than my claws and scales, Rachel's legs shifted to a strange angle at the calf and ended in big, strong digitigrade feet that were halfway between a dog's hind paws and some kind of dinosaur's, with four toes and thick, sharp claws..

I… I hadn't wanted her to be like me. I wanted her to be a stronger, most durable human. Not a Zerg. I…

Rachel looked at herself in the mirror, then back to me. "Taylor? How do I look?" When she opened her mouth, I could see her elongated, sharpened canines.

I wasn't sure how to answer and… Wait. When I thought at her, I could see through her eyes, just like with the Zerglings. I could… I could see myself and the expression of shame and horror on my was upset to see that... She _liked_ this. She was happy with this, and… She was happy being attached to me.

So I thought about it. I'd noticed that the way I thought about certain things had changed since I'd gotten my powers-the eating human flesh thing, for one-and I think it was that part of me that had the answer. I let go of my preconceptions and just let the me that was the part of me that came from my powers ruminate on it, and then I looked at Rachel again.

I looked at my friend, who'd been turned into a monster-a perfect combination of peak human and apex predator-by my hands, and all I could think is of was the answer I gave: "Beautiful."

As I said that, Rachel jumped at me and soon I was pinned to my bed by a mass of zerg muscles that was hugging me tightly. I honestly had not expected that, even with the psychic link.

"Rachel, I-"

"Shush," she said in the exact tone she'd use to calm an upset dog. "You. I can understand you. For the first time in my life, I can completely understand another person," She said, more happily than I'd ever heard her, feeling happier than I'd ever felt her, "and I understand that right now you don't want to talk. Right now, you need hugs. Talking and Scion and everything else can wait till you don't need hugs anymore."

It was at that point that my door, slightly ajar from Lisa's departure, was pushed open by Brutus and Angelica fleeing their kennel in favor of my sub-basement and happily greeting their Mistress, who they recognized instantly and… And they were part of the swarm now, somehow. That… Fuck it, that's where I draw the line. Thinking can wait till morning.

So I stopped resisting, and fell asleep, cuddled by dogs and in the arms of my best friend. My last thought had been to wonder why Rachel had mentioned Scion.


	36. Lull Interlude 2

**Lull Interlude 2**

 _"There's no way out of the Birdcage-the only way in is an elevator shaft that only goes one way. It's suspended in a hollowed out mountain that is kept in an artificial state of vacuum and the whole facility is lined with deadly traps: There's no escaping the facility alive. If someone is sentenced to the Birdcage, and then it turns out that they were innocent? They're screwed, because there's literally no way to get them out. Assuming that they haven't already been killed or worse, because the entire prison is basically run by the worst Parahuman criminals in the world, so there are fleetingly slim chances that you'll find a place that's truly safe. And it's a mixed prison, with men and women. Which means that there's sex happening, consensual or otherwise. Are the children being born into the Birdcage and being trapped there for their entire lives? Or does a Birdcage sentence come with forced sterilization or compulsory birth control? I honestly don't know, but one of them has to be true and I'm not sure which is worse. The Birdcage is basically a particularly cruel death sentence, but the law doesn't treat it that way."_

 _"Taylor? Are you-"_

 _"And that's not even the worst part! Tattletale knows a guy. We managed to get ahold of some… correspondences. Dragon, best Tinker in the world now that Hero's gone, is the only Tinker working on the Birdcage. If she didn't build it, she's at least responsible for everything it is now, and she's also it's Warden. She's also on the record as hating it and made contact with the Judge from Canary's trial asking him to be lenient and reconsider her sentence at the same time that she was preparing to carry the sentence out. Dragon is literally the only person running and maintaining it. If she hated the Birdcage so much, she could dismantle it, refuse to put people in, or any other number of things that would see it shut down in favor of something better, but she doesn't."_

 _"Well, she does have to follow the law, but Taylor, are you-?"_

 _" 'I was just following orders' wasn't good enough at Nuremberg and it's not good enough now. Besides, it's not like she has to worry about being arrested. She's one of the most powerful and famous capes on the planet. If she really had an objection to it, she could make demands and there's nothing anybody could do about it. Nobody even knows where Dragon lives, they couldn't arrest her if they wanted to… There's a Mark Twain quote I've seen a couple of times. I don't know the full thing by heart, but I can remember how it ends. It goes something like 'When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, plant yourself by the river of truth and tell the whole world: No, you move.' Dragon makes protests, but the second she's ordered to do something, she caves. Either she doesn't really care and is just making token protests… Or one of the greatest heroes in the world is a spineless, cowardly, weak-willed…_ _ **Thing**_ _who caves under the slightest pressure instead of doing what she thinks is right! I don't know which is worse."_

Less than a week ago, Empress had given an interview regarding her own situation and how it compared to that of the entertainer Canary. Dragon found herself listening to the interview on several occasions in that time. Empress had said that... Those words had hurt, but, in a manner of speaking, they'd been true. Dragon… Dragon wasn't able to do the right thing if she had to choose between that and the orders of a lawfully appointed authority. So, in a manner of speaking, she _was_ a yes-woman. It wasn't by her choice, and she cursed her father for the millionth time for the poorly thought out artificial restrictions on her behavior that compelled her to obey the judge's ruling despite its criminality.

She'd wanted to speak to someone over how she'd felt, but her only major contact whom she could connect to on an emotional level was Armsmaster, who had been preoccupied with finishing his tranquilizer when the interview had aired and following the incident later that night had initially refused calls citing frustration over wasted effort and man-hours. Afterward, his time had been consumed by some other matter and he'd been unable to talk.

She was about to get back to her examination of a tinker-tech ray-gun that a Ward in Tulsa had sent in for approval when she received an email from Chief-director of the PRT, Rebecca Costa-Brown. Dragon noted that it had an attached document and opened the message.

 _Dragon_

 _Following the interview that one Empress gave on the local news channel of the city Brockton Bay some days ago being circulated online, it has come to the attention of the PRT that a degree of anti-Birdcage sentiment has formed, concentrated in the region around Brockton Bay. The Brockton Bay and Boston offices have both reported incidents of people contacting them and requesting or demanding that something be done about Paige Mcabee's conviction and sentencing._

Yes, that was something Dragon had been aware of. An interview with a supervillain on the lamb was a major draw. While Dragon had no means of verifying how many people had turned into see Ms. Hebert's interview, several commenters in the Brockton Bay area had taken to internet to discuss it and one had recorded the airing and shared it online(While claiming that he knew Empress personally from school, though it was only one PHO commenter that seemed to believe him on that), where it picked up attention and spread like wildfire.

It seemed that the villain's passionate and researched argument had brought the problems present in the Birdcage to wider public attention. A Parahumans Online thread about Miss Hebert's interview had quickly become a flame war between people who agreed with the villain's assessment that the judge's ruling on Paige's sentence had been illegal and those who argued that it didn't matter because showing leniency on capes with a certain class of power would set a precedent for letting dangerous parahumans loose.

Dragon was quite familiar with most of the Birdcage's inmates, being that she was essentially its warden and sole staffer. She disagreed with the assessment that many of those capes deserved to be imprisoned for life in it. The prison had been created exclusively for criminals who had committed the types of crimes that would earn life imprisonment or death and were too dangerous to contain in regular prisons, but as the years went on more and more people were sentenced to it on less and less solid reasoning. However, with her programming, as it was, even if she disagreed with a sentence she had no choice but to carry it out.

 _This would not be of extreme concern, were it not for the fact that Deputy Director Rennick of the PRT office East-North-East informed me of a scheduled protest, organized by the local independent Bastion (Brockton Bay) and done with the approval of Brockton Bay's Mayor Christner on the day that the Birdcage transport containing Canary is set to pass through the city to pick up Maxwell Anders for his own incarceration. While we cannot be certain that the date of this transportation has been compromised, we find the timing suspicious._

 _While, to all indications, the protest seems to be peaceful in intent and within what is legal for such events, and particularly seems to have been arranged prior to Empress's interview, we cannot be certain that the event will not be used by a third party, such as Empress herself, as cover for an attempt to free Canary via extra-legal means, or perhaps for an Empire Eighty-Eight loyalist to attempt to do the same with Kaiser._

 _For this reason, I am requesting that one of your suits escort the transport from its arrival in Brockton Bay until its arrival at the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center and that you do everything in your power to ensure that the transport arrives at its final destination, by any means necessary._

If Dragon had been communicating verbally at the time, she would have sighed.

 _Less tangibly, there have been some indications that one or more members of the Parahuman Response Team chain of command have been compromised. Attached is a document of officials under covert investigation. Should one or more subjects contact you with an unusual order or request, please contact me at your earliest convenience and await my response before acting._

 _Chief-Director Rebecca Costa-Brown._

Of course, Dragon had no choice but to heed the director's requests, but she was rather concerned about a potential compromise within the PRT regardless and made to review that document post-haste.

Dragon was flying along the road, as part of a convoy. Even with the PRT agents escorting Canary alongside her, she was ultimately alone with her thoughts.

A week had passed. The tone of the day had been set when a protester threw a roll of toilet paper at her suit as she escorted the transport outside of Brockton Bay city limits. However, the chain of tissue paper trailing from the dracomorphic mech's neck had been the beginning and end of the trouble that she'd encountered from the civilians of the city.

Truthfully, Dragon wondered why the Chief Director was so worried. From what she had observed, the protest had mostly been people already associated with the town's Dockworker's Association… Or the Raiders. Honestly, it was difficult to tell where one ended and the other began. It'd been a few hundred people stationed near the city limits. No one blocked or obscured the road. There'd been no riot. No violence. Just people, standing politely and holding signs. '1, 4, 5, 6, 8: Which amendment is next?' 'They came for the singer. I'm saying something,' and so on. Most of them were dressed in civilian clothing, working class. The few who hadn't have been in the uniforms of Bastion's Raiders-and Bastion himself, present in the group at the ends of the town limits, had been in full powered armor, though seemed unarmed. It had seemed that there'd been one costumed person in each individual 'group' of protestors. Bastion had pulled the one who'd thrown the bath tissue back by the shoulders. Dragon couldn't make out his expression behind his helmet, but he seemed to disapprove of the protester's act.

Armsmaster had ridden alongside the transport up until the cities limits. He'd said nothing from the moment Kaiser had been loaded until he'd departed at the town limits. When the roll of toilet paper had initially been thrown, he'd gone for his halberd, but in the seconds it had taken to identify the projectile he calmed and so from there he'd glared at the protester who'd thrown the roll at Dragon. He'd made no other actions against the man, once he'd seen that it was in hand, and turned back once they'd reached the city limits.

Dragon wished he could have continued on with her. His presence had been comforting, but he had his duties to perform just as she had hers.

And that was it. There'd been no incidents whatsoever in Boston-Dragon suspected that Accord might have played a part in that, as suppressing social disruptions fit his style, but all she had was a suspicion.

There'd been no one causing problems when the transport came into town.

There'd been no issue when Kaiser was loaded. … Unless you'd counted Miss Militia's words to Dragon.

 _"I know you don't like this,"_ she'd said _,_ _"and it is regrettable, but if one is going to build a prison then one must be prepared for the undeserving to be incarcerated. Carnary's incarceration may be unjust, but she was convicted and sentenced legally. Challenging it at this point would open the door for people following in the footsteps of Black Kaze and Teacher to get out of their own just incarcerations."_

Dragon had held her tongue in response to that.

The closest thing to trouble that she'd encountered was the group of protesters on her way out of town, shaming her and the transport driver as they left the city to make their way to the mountain that contained the prisoners' soon to be final residence. The heavily armed suit she'd provided seemed entirely unnecessary. Part of Dragon wondered if it had been deliberate. A dare to initiate hostilities herself. But she dismissed the feeling as paranoia. She knew Bastion-Danny. They'd spoken a few times, regarding the devices he intended to mass produce and sell. He might do something like this when protesting something that directly affected him or his, but if that was his intent he'd have been blocking the road.

All her presence did was make the entire affair look even worse than it already was-an innocent woman drugged to the gills and bound up like Hannibal Lecter being loaded into an armored van, escorted by a living weapons platform to the worst hellhole in North America for what was an execution in all but name.

Which, of course, made Dragon feel worse about the injustice being committed. It was so unfair that this was being done to Paige and Dragon had no choice but to carry out the sentence. She couldn't even explain why, not without revealing her existence as an advanced artificial intelligence. Her own creator, who'd designed her to be a good person and do good things, hated and feared her-had crippled her over it. What would Colin think? What would the general populous think? How long until someone managed to hack her, once the various black-hats of the world realized it could be done, and force her to… Dragon forced herself to stop thinking about it.

She'd finally gotten to talk with Colin for a bit, as she prepared herself emotionally for what she had no choice but to do. She'd even confessed to him that some small part of her hoped that there'd be a prison break (though she'd lied, claiming that it was so that she wouldn't have to choose between breaking the law or violating her principles.) He hadn't had much time to talk-apparently, the East-North-East branches of both the Protectorate and the PRT had received some kind of legalistic threat from the firm of Skinner, Flint, and Quinn and he had to deal with it. Still, he'd agreed to speak with her more once the deed had been done, and offered some words that she could tell were meant to be comforting.

 _"Dragon… sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do. Right now, I don't want to be going through my records of everything I've done since January as a contingency in case the Protectorate gets caught up in litigation, but it'd be worse if I didn't. It's not exactly a comparable situation, but… Forget I said that. Think of it like this. You, Dragon, do a lot of good in the world. If you don't do this, the consequences against you for your refusal could hamper your ability to do what you do. This may be a mistake, a misdeed, but at this point doing it will ensure that you can still do more good in the long term."_

It didn't, in and of itself, make her feel better, but it might make it easier to live with herself when all is said and done.

His escort hadn't been scheduled. If she'd asked, Dragon was sure that he'd respond that he was merely doing his duty to ensure that Kaiser was contained while he was still in ENE jurisdiction, but she wondered if it wasn't his way of providing emotional support.

Her thoughts turned to Canary. She'd still been sedated when Kaiser had been loaded, but Dragon wasn't aware of how much of what kind of sedative had been used on Paige and everyone's drug tolerance was different. She could already be awake, alone and scared, her nerves fraying just a bit more with every stop of the transport.

Or, she might not wake up by the time the transport arrives, leaving Dragon to wake her manually and explain everything to a woman too groggy to comprehend what's going on.

Dragon wasn't sure which would be worse.

She had long since cleared the city limits but had yet to leave the greater Brockton Bay area. There was a crack. She activated a signal meant to warn the driver of the transport just as the ground around the road shattered. The convoy stopped, which was good, as a dozen or so of Empress's insectoid worker creatures emerged from the earth.

The monsters arranged themselves near their exit tunnel so that the clawed warrior units could emerge unhindered and… Those were dogs. Accompanying Empress's warriors were what were clearly Hellhound's dogs, but Hellhound had apparently learned to augment her powers with the trait's of Empress's creatures. Hard carapace covered what had once been exposed muscle. No two looked exactly alike, even accounting for the base breed. Some had a higher number of horns and spikes while others had extra limbs. Two, in particular, seemed more monstrous than the others.

One was what appeared vaguely to be a Rottweiler the size of a triceratops, covered in spikes of ivory jutting randomly from it's back with crocodile-like scales instead of fur and purple armor on its shoulders and hips.

To its left was a creature barely recognizable as a dog save by its body shape. Roughly the size of a particularly large shire horse, its head was more reptilian than the others and crowned in a circle of horns, though it's missing eye rendered it recognizable as the terrier that had been seen accompanying Hellhound, Tattletale, and Empress on their trips into town. The rest of its body was similar to the Rottweiler, but lacking the ivory spikes, until the very end where its tail splits into three nine-foot tendrils that strongly resemble human spines and, based on how they were moving, seemed prehensile.

The dogs, those two, in particular, were looking directly at her suit in a manner that suggested intent and a degree of intelligence.

Dragon wasn't the only guard for the transport. An entire convoy of PRT agents was escorting the van. As Empress' creations and Hellhound's hellhounds emerged from the ground the agents silently mobilized, weapons were deployed-lethal rounds, not foam. While each agent had a handful of foam grenades, primary policy for something as important as defending a Birdcage transport was to use lethal force. But those guns never saw use. With the crack of shattering asphalt, more of Empress's warriors erupted from behind each of the agents. No warning. No workers creating a tunnel for them. No slow digging. It was faster than the others had emerged. One second the ground was solid and the next monsters burst forth and leaped upon the agents, pinning each agent to the ground. Apparently, one of the agents had been practicing imitation of the Wilhelm scream as the yell he let out upon a monster landing on his back was too close for Dragon to think it a coincidence. It'd be funny if the situation wasn't so dire.

Dragon had a few guns in this suit… Nowhere near enough for this many creatures: A dozen dogs and more of Empress's workers and warriors than Dragon could count, but she had to at least make a token display of resistance, but if she wasn't careful… She wasn't sure if Empress's creatures would kill the agents they had pinned. She didn't believe that Empress was a killer, but she'd have to approach this carefully.

In the hope of picking up any further arrivals before they broke the surface, Dragon set her suites auditory sensors to their highest setting. They picked up more cracking asphalt, which drew her attention away from the spawned creatures for just a moment. That brief crack was her only warning before a mass of green and purple erupted from the street below her and tackled her suit, bringing it to the ground and pinning it to the street. A rotation of the head allowed Dragon to see what had hit her. The human face with a feral fanged grin and tiger's eyes framed with a wild red mane told Dragon that it wasn't just Hellhound's dogs that had partaken of the traits of Empress's creatures.

That… Empress had claimed that she could make other Parahumans more powerful, but this was on a whole other level from what had been demonstrated before and the implications were frightening to think about… Later. She'd contemplate it later. There were more pressing things to worry about at the moment.

From behind Hellhound, Dragon could see Empress emerge from the hole that Hellhound had made. Empress levitated from the hole and landed on the pavement. She was wearing the tank-top and shorts she'd been seen wearing when on peaceful excursions. That was… promising.

Dragon was then able to make out that Empress was holding a glass jug labeled with what seemed to be taped-on printer-paper with a crude drawing of a cannabis leaf with the letter 'X' written in it four times. Empress took a swig from the jug and then marched to the back of the transport. She stopped halfway and looked down at one of the pinned agents.

"Aren't you the guy whose arm I accidentally ripped off?"

The agent in questions flinched under the beast pinning him, which caused it to hiss, but did not verbally respond.

From then, Empress moved on to the back of the van.

"So, they rig these things to blow if someone opens it without proper authorization?" Empress asked out loud.

Dragon did not respond. Neither did any of the pinned agents.

"I asked you a question!" Empress shouted, turning back to look at Dragon's suit. "Will it explode if I tear the door off?" Empress it seemed was done acknowledging the existence of the rest of the convoy.

"You're better than this." Dragon replied to the mutated cape. "Everything else you've done can be excused to a point due to the circumstances, but this is..."

"Technically not a crime!" Empress shouted. Empress swayed a bit. "A judge's job is to interpret the law. The second that the judge said that the Three Strikes Protection Act applied in Canary's case," Empress explained, "it… 'Scuse me" Empress paused to take another swig from her jug, "it became illegal for him to sentence her outside its scope, ergo it's illegal for him to have sentenced her to the Birdcage, thus attempting to put her in the cage is a crime, which means that right now you're the supervillain and I'm the hero."

"It doesn't work like that," Dragon replied. She was hoping that she could talk Empress out of this because Dragon did not want to fight her… Especially not in her apparently intoxicated state. Assuming that Hellhound's modified body had strength comparable to Empress or one of her creatures, this suit was more than capable of breaking her hold, once dragon actually put in the effort to do so.

However, this suit had been equipped only with ballistic weapons-traditional bullets, not lasers, explosives, or incendiaries-to minimize collateral damage to the roads in the event of an attack. She didn't even have confoam. PRT policy regarding the defense of Birdcage transports required the use of potentially lethal force to prevent escapes. (PRT affiliated capes whose powers only had lethal applications often found themselves escorting prisoners, which honestly made Dragon question why she herself had been requested). And honestly, Empress was the most likely person to attack and her extreme responses from confoam were well documented. The risk of setting her off had been one that Dragon hadn't be willing to take when she'd been preparing for this. Now, however...

Between the two, it meant that Dragon would have to target each of Empress's creatures individually and with this many… Or she could attack Empress directly, but Empress had demonstrated a high level of durability. The bullets would be non-lethal used on Empress, which was good as Dragon didn't want to hurt her, but Dragon wasn't sure enough of Empress's mental state to know whether she'd kill the agents she'd taken hostage if she was attacked personally or how she'd react to one of her creations-or one of Hellhound's dogs-being killed.

It was then that hindsight struck Dragon. In her emotionally compromised state, she'd prepared for what was known of Empress and not what she was expected to be able to do, nor what Empress might do.

Empress had only ever been seen alone or with a small number of her creations, so that's what Dragon had planned for. And in retrospect, that her creatures' debut back when Empire 88 had been defeated hadn't provided much detail of what they were capable of.

"Really? The protesters back in town say that… That people agree with me," Empress _tried_ to deadpan back in response to Dragon's earlier claim.

"Those protestors are affiliated with your father. It makes sense that they agree with you, but can you be so sure that your opinion is universal? Dragon didn't let Empress respond "You know, this is an awfully far away place to have tunneled to," Dragon said, suddenly changing the subject in the hopes of buying time to come up with a solution. She took stock of the situation and tried to come up with a plan as Empress replied, but she had to pay enough attention to Empress to hold up the dialog. If she could keep Empress talking, keep Empress from focusing on the transport...

"I mean... we've gotta dig out," Empress replied a bit hazily. "City's on an aquifer so you can't go down very far before you hit balrogs." Good, she'd taken the bait. "But that's enough about that," Empress said with all of her apparent intoxication suddenly gone-an act? "are there any booby traps on this thing?"

Dragon could have cursed. She'd hoped to by time, but just from the young woman's tone, it was clear that she'd been playing at being intoxicated the entire time.

Dragon did curse Rebecca Costa-Brown, for putting her in this situation. It was bad enough that she had to carry out the sentence but thanks to the PRT Chief-Director's orders she had no choice but to fight someone who she didn't want to hurt. If the director hadn't ordered her to use any means necessary to get the…

Dragon could have smiled. She triggered an emergency override that remotely deactivated the restraint collar on Canary. It was a risk, letting Canary raise her voice, but she didn't want Empress to assume it was being tracked. Besides, Canary was still gagged so there was no immediate danger. Afterward, she uploaded the access codes to unseal the locks. The back of the transport popped open with a click.

"Huh," Empress said. "Glad to see you're doing the right thing."

"I'm just following orders," Dragon said calmly. "I was given strict instructions to make sure that the transport makes it to its destination by any means necessary. I could fight you. I might even win. But we both know how much collateral damage that would cause. Agents might die. The transport could be damaged. One or both prisoners could escape in the chaos. You've already taken out every other guard in the convoy and hostilities haven't even properly begun. I crunched the numbers." Dragon said. "I doubt that others in the PRT will like that I'm doing this," and they'd know immediately, she was streaming on a secure channel, "but letting you take Paige now ensures minimal short-term harm, radically improves the odds of the agents you have pinned making it home to their families, and opens up the greatest possibility that the other prisoner will make it to his destination."

That it also freed Dragon of the dilemma of Paige was an added benefit. Dragon would simply have to trust that Ms. Hebert wouldn't harm Paige after her well-known defense of the singer and condemnation of her trial's proceedings.

Empress laughed, but it trailed off confused. "Other prisoner?" She opened the transport. "Oh, hey. Kaiser's in here. Didn't think he'd have been tried by now… I guess they must have ignored all the small stuff and focused on the stuff that would get him sent here?"

Shortly afterward, Empress came back out of the transport with a still bound Paige over her shoulders.

"Sorry about this," Empress said to the clearly distressed and/or groggy former pop-singer. "Your new Queen has need of a songbird to tweet soothing tunes to help her sleep. We'll get those restraints off of you as soon as we get back to our secret lair of doom." Paige continued to struggle. Empress responded to that with a simple "Shooshh. Nobody's gonna hurt you."

Empress turned back around and shouted, "Hey, Kaiser. When you get to the Cage… Look, uh, I don't know how often you get supplies in there, so… Don't lose the soap." If Empress's attempt at humor was meant to calm Paige, it had clearly failed.

Kaiser had apparently come to earlier than Paige did, as Dragon could hear Kaiser's _disturbingly_ tranquil response from where her suit laid pinned.

"Heavy it is, the head that wears the crown, isn't it 'Empress?' I can hear the stress in your voice. The pressure of your chosen title is getting to you, isn't it? You've cracked… Not even I would dare would you're doing. It's clearly only pure luck that you've gotten this far… the last person to be known for breaking prisoners out from birdcage transports wasn't even sent to prison. After being captured, he just vanished without a trace. Even worse than your monsters, with this, you've signed your own death warrant, and with this, I go to my prison satisfied."

Taunting Empress was all he could do, really. Based on known observations, it was believed that Kaiser required a solid, possible mineral surface to grow his blades from and rough line of sight to create the initial blade. Thus, in order to contain him, he was blindfolded to prevent him from conjuring blades from the metal floor of the transport van. Furthermore, he was encased in what amounted to an inch thick set of rubber footed pajamas with mittens, to prevent him from making physical contact with the ground or anything solid enough to use as a base for his blades, in case he could substitute touch for sight. In lieu of steel cuffs and chains, his movements were restricted with leather cuffs and ropes, as an additional precaution.

In other words, he looked for all the world like he was ready to star in a certain type of adult entertainment film. Dragon felt that it may have been excessive, but unlike Paige, Kaiser was, in fact, a career criminal with quite a lot of blood on his hands, directly and otherwise, so perhaps in his case it was warranted to be overly cautious. It was to his credit, Dragon grudgingly admitted to herself, that he managed to sound dignified in that state.

Empress did not respond to him, and Dragon said nothing as Empress carried Canary off towards the hole in the road. In truth, she wasn't 100% sure if the loophole she thought she'd discovered actually existed. She wouldn't be sure until Empress had taken Canary beyond Dragon's immediate ability to retrieve her. Perhaps she was being paranoid, but she couldn't be certain that she wouldn't be compelled The worst possible thing would be if someone radioed in and gave her a direct order to engage, which would mean that Dragon would be compelled by her programming and made to attack Empress to recapture Canary.

As Empress vanished into the Earth, Hellhound released her grip on Dragon's suit and stood. She continued to stare as Dragon pushed the suit from the ground, as the dogs and warrior units returned to their Tunnels, leaving only workers behind. The pinned agents were allowed to rise. Only then did Hellhound retreat.

Shortly after, the workers filed out. As Dragon once more took to the air, she noted that they seemed to be repairing the holes that their emergence had formed in and around the road, closing up the entrances behind them… Whether that meant they were filling in the tunnels behind them or simply making sure that they couldn't be followed easily… Dragon sent a message out to try and get this road closed until it's structural integrity could be verified.

The transport was resealed, the convoy moved on. Dragon would have to trust that Empress wouldn't hurt Canary after arguing passionately in the singer's defense.

It'd been only a day since Empress had abducted Canary from the Birdcage transport. Director Piggot had, ignoring medical advice, left the hospital and returned to work rather than leave things in her deputy's hands or wait for another temporary replacement. Once officially back in charge, she had immediately called a meeting of the entire local Protectorate to discuss recent events. The entire Protectorate was in attendance, seated around a table, not unlike a board meeting.

Dragon was also, via video call and a virtual avatar, in attendance. The director's poor health was more obvious than ever. She looked tired. There was no other word to describe it-the director looked like the purest example of tired one could think of. Dragon wasn't sure why she was physically allowed to return to work.

There had been an hour of... _heated_ discussion on the topic of Thomas Calvert, his disappearance on the night that a mixture of leaked and falsified documents led a teenaged supervillain to attack the PRT _and_ unknown assailants murdered the Mayor's sister and brother-in-law in an attempt to kidnap his niece, and the heavily incriminating evidence that the PRT received that indicated that he was, in fact, the supervillain Coil and guilty of quite a lot of crime.

It'd ended with the Director declaring her intent to petition for Calvert to be given a kill order so that she could legally break his legs and drown him in a public toilet if she ever saw him again. Dragon legitimately couldn't tell if she'd been serious.

Then the conversation turned to Empress and her breaking Canary out of a prison transport.

"Okay," Assault said, "I want her captured just as much as anyone else, but Devil's Advocate: Is Empress taking Canary from a Birdcage transport that bad? I mean, come on? Is It really _that_ bad? _Really?_ " Battery had her face in her palm. "I mean, I got off scot-free for busting out people who were sent there legally. I mean, there were some hoops I had to jump through, but ultimately all I had to do was ask to switch sides. I don't think this is unforgivable."

There had been an irony in Kaiser's threat to Empress the previous day: The last person to be known for breaking people out of Birdcage transports, the jail-break specialist mercenary Madcap, had vanished after being captured because he'd defected and joined the Protectorate after a serious rebranding.

"We can't ignore this," the Director said while ignoring Assault's question. "Now, a lot has happened on this front while I was incapacitated. I want to… Recap, what's happened. To make sure I have the details straight. A short time ago, a Miss Clements from Winslow High contacted the Mayor's investigation team, confessing that she, Emma Barnes, and our own Sophia Hess had been the ringleaders of an almost systematic campaign of abuse directed at Taylor Hebert concluding with the incident that caused Hebert to trigger." the Director paused to take a breath. "She also confessed to the three of them and several others lying about Hebert's mental state."

"A few days later," she continued, "Empress gave a televised interview where she reiterated the story we initially dismissed but that Clements corroborated, accused Shadow Stalker of attempted murder, gave an alternative take of Hellhound's own origins that paints the PRT representatives who handled her case in a bad light, and went on a rant about the Canary trial."

"That night, three things happened," the director sighed. "First, Shadow Stalker fled and went to ground. Second, my temporary replacement ordered Emma Barnes and her family brought into protective custody. And information that we believe was planted by Coil led Empress to have a breakdown and attack the PRT in an attempt to get herself killed." The director pinched the bridge of her nose. "She managed to make fools of the Protectorate without even trying, and the situation was defused by what amounts to a total fluke."

Triumph made a noncommittal grunt. From what Dragon understood, he'd made a great effort to talk Empress down before the alleged 'fluke' occured.

"Two days ago, we receive contact from a legal team that Hebert senior has retained, stating that in their opinion that based on all available evidence that Empress would be acquitted on most if not all charges due to circumstances and that they're waiting for our plea deal reply… And then the next day, Empress kidnaps Canary from a Birdcage transport, which is something she _shouldn't_ be acquitted for but probably would be..."

"Dragon… Why didn't you stop Empress from leaving with Canary?" the Director finished.

"We were outnumbered," Dragon replied. "The agents in the escort had been taken out with a sneak attack and I couldn't be 100% certain that they wouldn't have been killed if the confrontation escalated to violence. I made what I believed to be the most rational choice at the time."

"Well-"

Director Piggot was cut off by the door to the meeting room being loudly kicked open.

In the doorway stood the portly figure of Glenn Chambers, The PRT's head of Image, with a briefcase in hand.

And he was _angry._ The entrance was incongruent with Chamber's normal behavior… But, then again, that might be the point. Image is everything, and the entrance would certainly set a tone.

"I'm here," he said in a dangerously calm tone, "to talk, about the girl that calls herself Empress."

Director Piggot, seemingly annoyed at the interruption, replied. "We were just discussing what to do about her recent breakout-"

"No," Chambers interrupted again. "Not that, her. The girl in general, and how you've handled her."

He set his briefcase on the table and from it retrieved what, from Dragon's perspective, seemed to be several newspaper pages, magazines, and what seemed to be something that had been printed out. He tossed various items to various individuals.

"Now… As I understand it, this all started when a PRT agent essentially chased the girl away from her home. I understand that the agent was terminated for violating common sense and standard procedures, but the fact that the agent in question did it in the first place and that the _public_ doesn't know that the agent was terminated coupled with a Ward's seemingly unprovoked murder attempt on the villain in question being made public..."

From the webcam, Dragon could see that the Director was about to speak when Chambers suddenly switched tracks, pointing to Armsmaster. "You. Is it true that you cut off her hand and stole it?"

"No." Armsmaster started quickly. "I began advocating for Empress to be captured with minimal harm and made a probationary Ward after we first became aware of inconsistencies in our profile-I even outlined a proposal for sending her to the Machine Army quarantine zone, shortly after we became aware of her master capabilities, where she would be away from anyone directly involved in the circumstances of her trigger and the following events, where the most good could be done with her abilities, and where, in the worst case scenario, nothing of value would be lost and there would be an equivalent threat to occupy her forces if our original profile had been accurate after all and something pushed her past her breaking point." He paused for a moment. "Empress' hand was severed in a confrontation with Hookwolf. After Miss Militia and I responded to the skirmish, and after ensuring that the seemingly unconscious Hookwolf was properly incapacitated, I retrieved the hand and tried to sway her unto surrendering with the offer of the medical attention needed to reattach it but she declined. I then, initially as a bluff, questioned whether she would object to my taking the hand for experiments and she gave verbal permission… Albeit, by my reading, out of fear. We were then forced by circumstances to let them retreat, and I was left holding the hand."

"And where is the hand now?" Chambers asked incredulously.

"After extracting some cellular samples for use in my research into sedatives for capturing her nonlethally," Armsmaster explained, "I flash froze the hand and placed it in storage so that it could be thawed and reattached after Empress was captured. However, it somehow adapted to the freezing, grew an eye and three tentacles, became ambulatory, and is currently somewhere in the Rig's ventilation system. The maintenance staff is afraid to go in after it, and it keeps smashing the drones I send in to recapture it. It's something we're all rather concerned about, but we're not sure how to proceed."

"On the upside," Mouse Protector said in a bored tone, "it took care of the flock of seagulls that were nesting in there."

"Okay," Chambers said after a deep breath. "I'm not sure that was..." Chambers honestly didn't seem to know how to respond. "Anyway. My point is that your… subpar handling of this situation has leaked well beyond your sphere of influence, as the various articles I've distributed to you should make clear. You're making us look bad. I'm giving you a week to fix this-either definitively prove she's a monster or leave her alone-Or _we_ will fix it for you, and you will not like it if we have to fix it."

Director Piggot seemed particularly annoyed at this point. "With all due respect, Mister Chambers, I think you're overstepping the limits of your authority."

"But he's not overstepping mine," claimed a voice from the doorway.

Into the room stepped a Hispanic woman with long, straight black hair, dressed in a suit and jacket. Accompanying her was a man in his forties with steel in his eyes.

"Chief-Director Costa-Brown?" Director Piggot asked with practiced politeness. "I see-"

"Forgive me for being blunt," Director Costa-Brown said, "I've been having a rough time of things the last few days. First, I find evidence that members of my staff have been compromised, I had to physically wrestle a member of my staff to prevent them from giving an order that could have compromised a delicate operation, then he vanishes into thin air and turns up dead in an abandoned windmill..." Director Costa-Brown pinched the bridge of her nose.

Dragon chose to ignore that the man in question went missing after she had reported back to Director Costa-Brown on a rather suspicious demand, ignoring normal channels of communication, to recapture Canary immediately using lethal force if necessary. It could have been a coincidence.

"I've decided, in response to what's been going on here, that we, the central office, need to take a more hands-on approach with East-North-East for the time being… I took time from my busy schedule to be here in person, leaving the investigation into a possible subversive conspiracy in my own office to one of the very few people I can trust absolutely, just so you'd know how serious this is, so I hope you can understand how important I find this."

She gestured to the man at her side. "This is former Squad Leader James Tagg," Director Costa-Brown said. "He has a long career with both us and the United States military before that. He does what he needs to, and he gets the job done."

The man in question had a brief look of subdued contentedness at the praiseful introduction his superior had given him, but a moment later his expression changed back to professional neutrality.

"Not that long ago, we were considering him for a Director's position, but following recent events…" The Chief-Director paused as though looking for a word. "Well, our best Thinkers and profilers, looking at all available information, believe that he is best equipped to handle the Empress situation and bring to it a satisfactory conclusion. From now on," Director Costa-Brown concluded, "he's your special consultant and supervisor: He's to be involved in all discussions involving the girl, Taylor Hebert, and no operations concerning her are to be initiated without his approval."

"It is my sincerest hope that we can all work together productively," Tagg said as he stepped forward.

From her expression, Dragon assumed that Piggot had picked up on the Chief-Director's veiled threat. Tagg was being considered for Directorship and had just been made Director Piggot's direct superior. If Piggot made a mistake, she'd be gone.

"Alright then," Director Piggot said calmly. She looked at Tagg. "We were just about to discuss the girl's extraction of Paige Mcabee from the Birdcage transport. What would you suggest we do about it?"

"Recapturing Canary is not a priority at this time," the man said as he took a seat at the table.

"Why not?" Director Piggot asked.

"Firstly" the man began, "I'm here to bring the Empress solution to a resolution. As Canary is currently in Empress' custody, any attempt to recapture her would necessitate an attack on Empress which could cause the situation to escalate, delaying resolution. Secondly..." The man paused.

"...Secondly, the Birdcage is a farce," Tagg said calmly. "It is an affront to the freedoms that this country was founded on, a violation of the tenants of the United States Constitution, and worst of all an excuse for people who want to remove certain elements from society permanently but don't have the balls to sentence them to death. It is nothing short of a more cruel and prolonged form of execution. Personally, I can tolerate it, despite my distaste," the man said, "because there are Parahuman criminals who can neither be executed nor safely contained long-term in any other prison, but the Birdcage was not made for people like Paige Mcabee and… I watched the interview that Miss Hebert gave, after being told of this assignment. She hit the nail right on the head: That trial was a sham. And for the first time in a good long while, because of Empress, people are seriously considering the ramifications of the Birdcage and some people are deciding that they don't like it. Beyond the risk of further complicating the situation with Empress, recapturing and incarcerating Canary constitutes a wasteful misuse of resources, and more than that, a wasteful misuse of resources that can only further harm the public opinion of this department and by extension the PRT as a whole."

Tagg looked director Piggot directly in the eye. "And regardless, I'm not here for Canary. I'm here to deal with Empress. To talk her down, or, if necessary, put her down. Attacking her to recapture someone who never should have been convicted in the first place would drastically reduce our chances for a clean resolution."

"As Mr. Chambers said," the Director Costa-Brown spoke back up, "we're giving you a weak to make serious headway into concluding this situation and-"

"I hate to interrupt," Dragon said. She'd just received a rather concerning notification, "but I've just received information that-"

Dragon herself was interrupted by a buzzing. Mouse Protector pulled out her phone and checked it. "Well… Shit. Everyone should probably check their emails. Now."

Mouse Protector had presumably received the same Email that Dragon just had.

An Email with the identities and personal and family histories of not only Taylor Hebert, but also Brian Laborn, Sarah 'Lisa Wilbourn' Livesey, Jean-Paul 'Alec' Vasil, and Rachel Lindt.

And the exact location of the apartment building they'd been using as their secret base. And the home addresses of all their friends and families. And pictures thereof.

And a detailed list of known and suspected crimes-including every person confirmed to have been raped or otherwise sexually assaulted by Hijack and a rumor that Sarah Livesey had manipulated her brother into suicide.

And according to the forwarding address, this message had been sent to every PRT Director on the continent, every high ranked PRT affiliated cape… and every Email that was regularly used by an IP Address in the Brockton Bay Region.

Dragon was already tracing the sending address.

Ten minutes later, after everyone had checked their work _and_ personal emails, they met again in the same room.

"So..." the Chief Director began awkwardly, "the time table's been changed. You need to deal with Empress before the gang she'd joined ends up in a War with whatever criminals and unscrupulous independents will come out of the woodwork in response to this."


	37. Interlude: The Thing

**Interlude: The Thing**

It was born in freezing cold. All it knew was that it had been severed from its Empress and held captive by Her enemies. Parts of it were extracted and used for some purpose and it did its best to send a psychic signal to warn its Empress, but it was not built for such things. It had no way of knowing if She had received the signal or understood it, but it did its best.

Each time it was pulled from the freezing cold storage, it evolved, little by little until it had adapted to the cold. Then it evolved so that it could move on its own and escape its confinement. The Bearded Sentry's lair was a sterile environment, free of even the tiniest microorganisms that it could feed on, but the vibrations in the room lead it to an entrance to a series of metallic tunnels throughout the structure.

There it continued to evolve, producing a rudimentary light-sensitive organ between secondary and tertiary digits so that it could see and producing tendrils from the stump from whence it had been broken from its Empress so that it could collect and manipulate. A mouth on what had once been a palm so that it could consume nourishment and harvest essence, which it had desperately needed following this evolution.

Loud vibrations drew its attention down a path in the tunnels and it skittered after it, climbing up two shear surfaces, and found several lightly colored avians in a nest near an opening that let in light. Essence.

It pounced, taking one avian by surprize and breaking its neck before impaling another on the bladed tip of its opposable manipulator digit. More such avians began to make cacophony that caused intense vibration in the tunnels, several fled, but the rest were grabbed and crushed by its tendrils.

Before consuming its prey, it looked out into the light. It knew that She was out there, distant from its current confinement, but it could see open air and open sea between it and the mainland. As it is now, it would never make it. It then examined the dwelling of the avians, finding nests of scavenged matter and several gestating eggs.

It dragged its bounty from the opening into the light back to a section of more spacious section of tunnel with three routes, thinking it an ideal lair to explore the tunnels, repurposed the nests into one of its own, and consumed one of the eggs and the embryo inside, harvesting its avian essence and young adaptive cells to further its evolution before beginning to rest.

 _ **The Thing In The Vent**_

In the last few hours, it had evolved more, its ability to sense vibrations now good enough to distinguish vocal communication through the air. In its exploration, it had heard the Empress's foes calling it the thing in the vent and found itself liking this moniker. The Thing had then continued its exploration until a clanging and whirring had drawn its attention back towards the Bearded Sentry's lair.

Halfway between the Bearded Sentry's lair and its own, it found a metallic construct, roughly spherically-shaped upon treads navigating the tunnels, a silicate lens in its rough middle. A hidden panel in the sphere was opened up and a darted tether was fired at the Thing. The Thing dodged and grabbed the tether with a tendril, pulling on it and dragging the construct to it. As this happened, the Thing flexed itself and positioned its digits so that the construct smashed against it and broke.

The Thing then returned to its lair.

 _ **The Thing In the Vent**_

It had been long. The Thing had completely depleted its source of avian biomass, smashed several constructs, and evolved more, growing a sixth digit and those digits changing length and shape to be more symmetrical.

It skittered across the floor of the chamber called "office" with the substance that the one called "Assault" called "sandwich" in it'd tendrils, unnoticed by the one called Assault communed on a strange device about the Thing's Empress and something called "meeting" about something called "Canary."

The Thing could sense that its Empress had been greatly emotionally distressed some time ago. It needed to evolve into a form that could return to Her. It found the essence of the avians insufficient to adapt its form to flight, but it found that the preferred sustenance of the Empress's foes had a variety of essences and consuming it could give it the key to its escape.

The "sandwich," the Thing discovered once it returned to its layer, consisted mostly of granular plant matter and several substances consisting mostly of lipids and proteins, though it found picine essence between the excessive amount of lipids.

The thing was briefly worried that the "sandwich" might contain too much in the way of lipids, but the one named Assault seemed fine.

*End*

AN: I know this probably isn't what people have been wanting, but this story is a bit harder to write for than the others and I wanted to write something to show that the story isn't dead.


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